By Laurie O’Brien
In every group there are people who go above and beyond, helping make their communities better places. For some, it’s on a grand scale – spearheading programs that have the potential for national or even international impact. For others, the focus is more immediate – providing leadership for neighborhood groups, serving as mentors for local youth, or just stepping up when they see a need.
Meet Deanna East, who serves as the Heath Room Assistant at Timberline High School. “I am not a nurse,” she says. “We have an RN that comes in two days a week, and I am basically her assistant. I’m here all five days, and I supervise any kids that are in the health room.” She has both CPR and first aid training, and the nurse provides specific training for meeting individual student needs.
“You never know what’s coming through your door in a health room,” says East. “You have kids that are not feeling well. You may have injuries. We have students that have diabetes or use an Epi-Pen, or they have a life saving device of some kind, and we have to help manage what they do while they’re here at school. I look at my position as allowing students to be here by being able to support them in the different needs that they have.”
Those are the written requirement of her job – what she was hired to do. But since starting at the school seven years ago, the position has evolved into something even more, and East is meeting student needs in a way she didn’t anticipate.
In addition to her regular functions, she now coordinates a number of programs aimed at helping those students who are at high risk for dropping out; she helps feed those who are facing hunger on a daily basis.
East explains that as part of her health room protocol, she asks students a standard list of questions, including “when did you last eat?” East says she noticed a trend almost immediately after being hired. “I started getting the answer, ‘yesterday at lunch,’ so I would ask more questions about why they didn’t eat dinner.” Through her questions, East discovered that many of the students who came to her did not have access to a sufficient quantity of food outside of school hours.
With the district’s free and reduced lunch program, many students eat both breakfast and lunch, but East, the mother of two sons, was concerned about what was happening once the students left the building. “When I started hearing that they didn’t have any food at home…that really impacted me… as a mom, you’re just like ‘Okay, they’ve got to eat!’”
After speaking with school principal, Dave Lehnis, and making sure he was aware of both the issue and what she wanted to do about it, East tackled the problem head on. For awhile, she brought in groceries and supplies on her own, spending her own money providing staples to tide the kids over on the weekends. She also solicited donations from other staff members. Then, looking for ways to get more food, she made a call to the Thurston County Food Bank.
The Food Bank runs the FORKids Backpack programs for elementary schools in Thurston County, but they did not have an equivalent program for high school students. However, Food Bank Executive Director, Robert Coit told East about a new program Kelly Wilson had just started that might be able to supplement what she was already doing.
“She (Kelly Wilson) was on a very beginning grant, so she only had one school in every (district),” says East. “Her son went here, so I asked if we could be that school. She said ‘I just talked to North Thurston, but I will bring you your bags,’ so she hand delivered bags to me for the first year.” Wilson’s program, Homeless Backpack, now has sufficient volunteers and resources to provide coverage to schools all over Thurston and Mason County. At Timberline, the organization provides a backpack full of food each week for 20-30 kids.
Wilson has nothing but praise for East. “Deanna takes on this job as if it were her life’s mission. She utilizes every resource available to support her homeless and hungry students. Homeless Backpacks has a ‘Circle of Love’ email list. When there is a special need outside of the food we supply, we send out an email to Circle of Love supporters for a particular item to share or donate. Deanna not only shares these needs with us, but, on her own time, she will drive wherever she needs to go to pick up the item and deliver it to the student. We are motivated and inspired by her commitment and the lengths that she will go to support each student to win at school. Her compassion is contagious!”
Paul Dean, one of Timberline’s assistant principals and Deanna East’s direct supervisor echoes the praise. “Deanna is just one of those caring people who tries to do things to help kids.” She does it, he says, “…without judgment, without trying to attach any label to it, providing things for students and families that are in need.”
Says East, “Most of my kids are couch surfing and don’t consider themselves homeless. They struggle because they usually bounce from home to home. They don’t know how to get the resources that are out there and they are scared that other kids will find out. We give every effort to make sure the student has what they need to succeed at Timberline, treat them with dignity and keep their confidences if possible. It’s my passion to work with these kids and watch them graduate. I’m their biggest cheerleader.”
In addition to coordinating the backpack food program for the school, East also organizes a gift giving program for school families that might not be able to afford presents over the holidays. Because students involved in her programs are at high risk for dropping out, she also makes sure that students who make it to graduation receive a gift of some kind. Last year, thirteen of her students graduated and three of them were accepted into colleges, something East is very proud of. “She has supported her students in obtaining everything from undergarments to scholarships,” says Wilson.
East is quick to recognize a number of organizations that help her in her quest to feed the hungry students at her school. She points out Wilson’s organization and Life Pointe Church, a church that uses the Timberline facilities on the weekends. “They have three food drives a year and take on several kids at Christmas and graduation. They also have provided shoes, clothes, personal needs, testing fees, blankets, furniture, and so much more for these kids’ individual needs.”
“The North Thurston Public Schools Education Foundation has the McGimpsey Pantry and funds that help out hundreds of kids with clothes, supplies, or whatever is needed for them to be at school,” says East. And she also has nothing but praise for fellow Timberline staff members, saying that any time she has a specific need, all she has to do is ask.
Ultimately though, East is the one who stepped up to the plate. “As a parent, I could not watch kids coming in hungry every day. I wanted to make sure that something happened,” she says.
Well, she did that, and she knocked the ball out of the park.
For more information on the Homeless Backpack program, click here.
