Little Singer Community School (Navajo)

 

 

Little Singer Community School (LSCS) is a PreK-8 school located on the Navajo Nation. It serves approximately 110 students living in dire poverty. Read a news article about this school and the conditions under which its students and families struggle. [Since this article, they’ve built a new school!] Although this school is not on Pine Ridge Reservation, FoPRR is taking this Navajo community of babies, children, and elders under its wing and you can help.

Large and small, there are many ways to support LSCS. If you have any questions, or if you have a group that is seeking a project that would be helpful, please ask me!

Donate Nonperishable Foods

Many Navajo families are in need of help with food during the pandemic.  Please order online and ship staples like dried beans, canned fish and meats, peanut butter, canned fruits, vegetables and beans, canned and dried soups, flour, oil, shelf stable milk or almond milk, pasta and pasta sauce, bottled water (many homes do not have running water), baby food, baby formula, coffee, tea, oatmeal, low sugar cereals, etc.

Donate Books for the Students

It’s so important for the LSCS kids to have reading materials that engage them. The students are lagging far behind in their grade level reading skills and the school only has old books which the kids have been reading over and over again. If you’d like to donate books to Little Singer Community School, click here. [Please do not send encyclopedias, used textbooks or old magazines.]

Donate New Magazines or Magazine Subscriptions

If you have recent issues of children’s magazines that you can donate, or order magazine subscriptions to send to the school, they would be most welcome. If you have a current subscription of an adult magazine that you don’t have time to read, go to your magazine’s website and put in a request to change the name and address for the remaining issues left on your subscription and have them sent to LSCS instead. Remember, you can also order free gift subscriptions with your airline miles as well!

Donate Infant and Toddler Supplies

The Little Singer Community School Baby FACE (Family and Child Education) is a federally funded program that teams educators with mothers as well as pregnant women and teen girls to ensure that their babies are healthy and to teach them how to ensure their babies are prepared for school as they grow into toddlers.

Baby FACE provides in-home visits as well as parenting classes, screening for vision and hearing, and developmental testing to engage new parents in early childhood learning practices.

You can help by donating infant and toddler diapers, formula, food, blankets and clothing (purchased or knitted/crocheted/sewn for newborn through preschool age), and all types of supplies. Their most urgent needs are always diapers in size 3 to 6 and formula.

Donate Classroom Supplies

The LSCS classrooms can always use bulletin board supplies, puzzles, math and other educational games, school supplies, art supplies (foam stickers, chenille sticks, craft sticks, glue sticks, decorative scissors, pom poms, wiggle eyes, construction paper, etc.), dry erase markers, manipulative, printer paper, holiday decorations, snacks, etc.

Donate Student Incentives

LSCS can use incentive items for the kids to encourage good behavior. The school can use donations of all sorts of small items for incentives–art supplies, craft supply kits, matchbox cars, greeting cards and stationery, bubbles, paper dolls, jump ropes, sketchbooks and drawing pencils, watercolor sets, coloring books, glitter glue pens, activity books, toiletries for the older kids, zippered cases, hair accessories, small games and toys, index cards, fun pencils and gel pens, novelty erasers, stickers, notebooks, journals, Mad Libs, university branded pencils/pens, etc.

Donate Sewing, Quilting and Beading Supplies for LSCS Families

LSCS families can use sewing machines, irons, fabric, buttons, zippers, patterns, all types of sewing and quilting notions. They can use any and all types of fabric, and this is a year round need. No coyote, snake or owl prints please! They can also use any and all types of beading supplies.

Donate Items to Elders

Six miles from the school is the local Chapter House (the Navajo Nation is separated into many chapters and the chapter house is its civic center) and as such the school can distribute donations out to many elders. The Navajo elders can use electric heaters, clothing, toiletries, small appliances, footwear, sleepwear, bed and bath linens, household goods.

If you’d like to donate something for an elder, please include a note in your box so the school will know to pass it on to the elders – if you are mixing in those items with other things in your box, or you can address your box to : Navajo Elders, Little Singer Community School at the shipping addresses below.

Donate New Shoes, Socks, Underwear, Clothing

The kids of all ages, Pre-K through 8th grade can use new shoes, rain boots, socks, underwear, thermal underwear, clothing, sleepwear, coats, hats, scarves, mittens and gloves, umbrellas. There is no grass around the school, it is all dirt which turns into mud during the rainy season January through March, so umbrellas, rain boots and rain gear are especially helpful during those months. All sizes (through adult) needed!

Donate Soap and Shampoo

Since many of the school’s families live in homes with no running water, Little Singer Community School provides showers for their use. The school can use donations of bar soap and shampoo. These are year-round needs. Hotel-sized toiletries are also welcome so be sure to take those home with you on your next trip out of town!

Donate Sports Equipment

The school can use lots of sports equipment for the students; namely, basketballs, basketball pumps, soccer balls, volleyballs, baseballs, bats, gloves, and bases. Thanks for your support!

Donate Clothing and Household Goods for the LSCS Families

If you have new and/or very gently used clothing for children and adults and household goods or new bedding that you’d like to donate to the LSCS families, please ship them to the address below.

Sew, Knit or Crochet

If you like to sew, knit or crochet and would like a suggestion as to what you can make that would be helpful for this school, the babies/toddlers, and/or elders, please ask me!

Make a Monetary Donation to LSCS

If you would like to make a monetary donation to this school, please send a check or money order made out to “Little Singer Community School” and mail it to the P.O. Box address below. Thank you!

Please ship your donations for the school to:

 

Etta Shirley, Principal
Little Singer Community School
P. O. Box AQ
Winslow, AZ 86047

or

Etta Shirley, Principal
105 Navajo Drive
Winslow, AZ 86047

 

Please Note: Due to the volume of donations shipped to the reservation FoPRR cannot verify delivery of your boxes. If you are shipping from home and require confirmation of delivery, please purchase delivery confirmation from the post office or use your shipping service’s tracking system.