Chamber president encourages local businesses to ‘adopt a class’

Local business owners looking for a way to give back to the community have a new way to do so.

Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce President Matt Parker is working as a liaison between business owners and Landmark Elementary School, the host site of a new pilot program aimed at crafting a more personalized way to help teachers.

Unlike similar programs where businesses adopt an entire school, the program at Landmark will allow businesses to adopt individual classes, providing supplies, funding and hands-on help to the students and teachers in those classes.

“We are really blessed with the teachers in our system, because they step up and provide a lot of supplies for kids out of their own pocket,” Parker said. “We want to build some equity with kids, teachers and administrators. We can participate, create some relationships in the classroom that are meaningful. It’s everything, supplies, financial and hands-on dealings, to try to bridge the gap in the classroom. It’s hard to put a dollar figure. Support is the key.”

Landmark’s reading coach, Linda Alford, is anticipating the program’s results.

“It’s a wonderful program, because we’re in proration this year,” Alford said. “We expect teachers to do a good job, so we’re just finding ways to give them the tools to do what they need to do. It’s my understanding that, in the beginning, Landmark Elementary is going to pilot this project and eventually it will go citywide.”

The project is starting in just one school to gauge interest from business owners.

“We’re going to try to reload and support our classrooms at Landmark and take it from there,” Alford said. “We’ve got to try to crawl before we walk.”

Interest in the program has already been impressive, according to Parker.

“I’ve had a lot of support and a lot of excitement about this opportunity,” he said. “I have talked to a couple business leaders, and they have said that it’s a good idea. We don’t want to overcommit, we want to take small steps and see how it goes from there.”