How Can I Help?

Last night I spent a few hours volunteering at a local organization in Minneapolis called FreeBikes4Kidz*. I walked into the warehouse and was floored. Literally thousands of bicycles waiting to be cleaned-up, wrenched and delivered to children in need. In effort to bring more awareness to Terry Esau’s effort to "Turn a dusty bike into a shiny smile" and the FB4K.com program, I uploaded the photo above this post to my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

A friend replied on Facebook with one simple sentence. “How can I help?” It got me thinking of all the ways he, and his company can help. I started think about how I can leverage my network to help FB4K. As a former bike racer and overall bike nut, I know a lot of bike mechanics and shop owners. I also know many Principals and teachers. I know High School students can earn community service hours by volunteering at FB4K, schools and students can fund raise, school staff can come in as a team for a few hours to polish bikes. After all it is a great team building experience as evident by the smiles and laughter coming from the group of attorneys and staff from a local law firm. But I also started to think about the magic of those four words, “How can I help?”

As school leaders we often find ourselves mired in data, embroiled in budget decisions, curriculum planning, professional development delivery, state reports, grant applications, and a scad of other mind numbing administrative tasks. And don't forget the meetings, meetings, and more meetings…Its easy to forget that we are also there in service to students, staff and families in our school community. Our school community members often come to us with their problems both professional and personal. By responding with, “How Can I Help?” we are setting a tone of empathy and support. By starting with those four simple words we demonstrate to our school community that we do in deed care and are there to support them.

By asking, “How can I help?” I’ve seen the stress melt away from parents when they’ve come to me with bullying or other child focused issues. Those four words to teachers can change their feelings about a challenging student, or a strained relationship with a parent in their classroom community. Students feel safer knowing their Principal wants to help. Once we know we are not in it alone, we feel better and more hopeful about the situation.

“How can I help” grounds us back to one of the basic reasons most of us chose this profession. We care and want to help others. At the end of the day I can set aside the stress and intensity of this work knowing that I have helped a student, a staff member or a parent. I am reminded that I have the best job in the world.

*If you want to help FreeBikes4Kidz share the joy and freedom felt by flying on two wheels with children in need, please consider a contribution to FB4K.com