[427]NEW ‘YELLOW ROOM’ BRIGHTENS KIDS’ FUTURES

NEW ‘YELLOW ROOM’ BRIGHTENS KIDS’ FUTURES
Grant, Community Efforts Allow MTSU’s Project Help to Serve More Families

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 2, 2008
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina E. Fann, 615-898-5385

(MURFREESBORO)—Just inside the east porte-cochère of MTSU’s Fairview Building, a new room filled with sunshine is helping more little ones grow.
Project Help's new "Yellow Room," built with aid from a $5,000 Community Enhancement Grant sponsored by state Sen. Jim Tracy and last summer's successful "Saddle Up" fundraiser, can now let the program provide services for another 10 young children.
Watching them bounce and toddle around the Yellow Room during a recent open house as parents, grandparents and friends filled the adjoining observation room, it's clear the extra space is welcome.
University senior Kandis Oliver, a child and family development studies major who works as a child-care aide for Project Help, regularly leads the little ones in "circle time." They dance, sing, say their names and do other exercises cleverly disguised as play, all with the aim of invigorating and expanding little minds and bodies—and with the help of teachers Stephanie Mansolf and Rebecca Harris.
"I've wanted to work with Project Help for the last two years," Oliver said. "I kept begging them for work, saying, 'Are y'all ever going to have a part-time opening? I really want to work here! Please!' And then this opportunity arose, and I love it."
Project Help, which began in 1983 to provide a classroom environment for developmentally delayed children from birth to three years of age and a training ground for education majors at MTSU, celebrated its 10th anniversary in its North Baird Lane facility in April 2007. Its services are in almost constant demand, and children are on a waiting list for admission into its "Red," "Green" and "Blue" classrooms.
The Yellow Room addition is a true community effort, from the grant and fundraiser for construction to the Charity Circle-donated furniture and computers and United Way dollars for staff salaries.
Dr. Gloria Bonner, outgoing dean of the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, approved the use of the room in the Fairview Building, which also houses MTSU's Child Development Center, the Career and Technical Education Office, the Center for Environmental Education, dance studios and the Tennessee Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Center.
"This classroom is the result of what can actually happen when university and community resources unite," said Project Help Director Susan Waldrop. "We are blessed to have the support of people in both who really care about helping children and families."
For more information about Project Help, visit its Web site at www.mtsu.edu/~projhelp or call 615-898-2458.

-------
IN BRIEF: Just inside the east porte-cochère of MTSU’s Fairview Building, a new room filled with sunshine is helping more little ones grow. Project Help's new "Yellow Room," built with aid from a $5,000 Community Enhancement Grant sponsored by state Sen. Jim Tracy and last summer's successful "Saddle Up" fundraiser, can now let the program provide services for another 10 young children. The Yellow Room addition is a true community effort, from the grant and fundraiser for construction to the Charity Circle-donated furniture and computers and United Way dollars for staff salaries.

For MTSU news and information, visit www.mtsunews.com.

—30—

ATTENTION, MEDIA: For a color JPEG of students and teachers at play in the Yellow Room, or for a headshot of story principals, please contact Gina E. Fann in the Office of News and Public Affairs via e-mail at gfann@mtsu.edu or by calling 615-898-5385.

Thanks!