S.P.I.C.E. It Up

This afternoon, a few lines from a poem I love, "Barter" by Sara Teasdale, went tripping through my head:  "Life has loveliness to sell/ All beautiful and splendid things/ Blue waves whitened on a cliff/ Soaring fire that sways and sings...Music like a curve of gold/ Scent of pine trees in the rain/ Eyes that love you, arms that hold..."   Oh, you could argue that it's not great poetry, but I disagree, and it often runs through my mind on days like today.  I was watching the burnished red Bradford leaves out my dining room windows as I was grading essays, marveling that even in this infernal, endless Oklahoma wind that I dislike so much, there is something to be pleased by:  the sight of those shiny leaves tenaciously clinging to the branches, performing a whirling-dervish dance goodbye---bartering for a little more time in their short lives.  That's the very thing Teasdale was encouraging.

But then I also thought of what was ahead for my evening:  the yearly S.P.I.C.E auction in Locust Grove.  Special Partners in Children's Education is a local foundation that our community formed about 16 years ago to support the four schools in the LG district.  Specifically, they raise money and award grants to teachers each semester.  I know that there are foundations of this sort in many communities, and certainly the cities have them---I wouldn't have been fortunate enough to receive my Fund for Teachers grant three years ago if not for the Tulsa community foundation.  But I can't help feeling amazed at what this group does in our rural town with limited local businesses. 

Every fall, the S.P.I.C.E. auction is held on a Saturday evening, featuring a dinner and a dessert contest for starters.  The auction always has a theme, and table decorating contests help take the burden for decorating off the foundation and add to the fun.  Donated items are offered in both a silent auction and a live auction.  The live auction items are much too big for me to bid on:  chainsaws, SEC game tickets, Reba tickets, huge themed baskets, toolboxes, small furnishings or large home decor items.  But I usually get something in the silent auction; last year it was a massage from Stacy, my usual massage therapist.  I've gotten a book basket before, and tonight I won a custom bling t-shirt (I've been coveting that for a while now).  I've been fortunate to benefit from S.P.I.C.E. grants several times for technology, and just last year, Robin Pendergraft and I received a large grant to purchase new MLA books for the juniors and seniors.  It's safe to say that our schools would be much less advanced without the hard work that all these local volunteers do. 

But what does it really add up to?  How does $17,000 sound?  That's how much was awarded just tonight, every cent of it RAISED by this foundation, every cent going directly to classrooms and students---no administrative costs, no salaries.  Every grant award was given to a teacher who went proudly up to pick up the award letter that will advance his or her classroom.  I knew almost all of them, and had taught at least one, so I feel safe in saying that that money is in good hands, open hands poised to do just a little more, just a little better, for the children they teach.

In the spring, a similar round of grants will be awarded; the average per semester is about $15,000, the last that I heard.  That means the total dollar amount raised and awarded over the years is in the hundreds of thousands by now---I don't know an exact amount, but, gosh!  In a two-stoplight town, who would have expected it?  And remember, there's no corporate grandaddy handing this out:  it comes from a cafetorium full of teachers and community members who know that without a strong, progressive local school, there's no town left.  Small towns don't let that kind of thing happen.  We go have dinner together, razz each other about our bids, hoot and holler while Ronn auctions, circle the silent auction table like vultures at the last seconds, elbowing each other to get the last bid in, and stand in line to pay our bills, chatting about the recent election, who was the last victim of middle school principal Clint Hall's tricks, which building will win the contest for most teachers in attendance.  And we applaud every teacher who goes forward to pick up those grants. 

If that isn't loveliness, I don't know it.  If it's not goodness, there is none to be found. 


The last stanze of "Barter" is the best, and it's perfect for this evening's events:

"Spend all you have for loveliness,

Buy it and never count the cost;

For one white singing hour of peace

Count many a year of strife well lost,

And for a breath of ecstasy

Give all you have been, or could be. "

 

A little too feverish, perhaps, but simply put:  Invest in whatever it is that you love, and don't look

back.  How fortunate I am to work in a place where there are people who understand the power and

joy of investing in young people, making their educational experience the best it can be.  That they

are willing to work so hard, to "Barter" for the betterment of many, many children that they may

never know, is a loveliness almost too beautiful to comprehend.