Let's Get Political...Political

On Saturday morning, the three of us bundled up and headed over to Shawnee Mission North High School to attend a legislative forum about the importance of Parents as Teachers, Infant/Toddler Services, Head Start, etc. There were two Kansas State Representatives in attendance, Reps Colloton and Bollier, both of which are already ardent supporters of early childhood education. This was intended to be an opportunity for the parents of children in these programs to learn about the state's upcoming budget planning process and share their experiences in the program(s) with the legislators, who then in turn, could share these stories with other legislators to help ensure funding is kept intact.


Jody and I were invited because of our involvement with Infant/Toddler services and Parents as Teachers. We consider both programs important, but hold ITS in higher regard because of the relationship we've cultivated with the educators and because of the huge strides Kylie has made due to these services.


I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but we were one of four families asked to speak about our experiences with the programs. Jody seized the opportunity to share how much ITS has helped Kylie and crafted two plus pages of comments, working hard to make sure proper credit was given to the organization.


Jody did an amazing job of sharing the importance of the program to us. She is very passionate about this, which was evident in her words. The crowd both laughed and cried with her as she shared details of Kylie's progress.


Kylie and I played in the back of the library, coloring and watching the snow come down. Once it was mommy's turn to speak, I picked up the camera and snapped a few pictures before going back to keeping tabs on Kylie.







Afterwards, Rep. Pat Colloton spoke with both Jody and I about our experiences and thanked us for coming and sharing. She also invited Jody to the capitol in Topeka to share our experiences with the entire House! We'll work on details for that in the coming weeks.