Parents, staff, families and friends, it doesn’t matter how you choose to give of yourself — volunteering at a non-profit agency, a child care center, soup kitchen, homeless shelter or donating to a worthy cause. The important thing is that you give. It is not how much you give; the important thing is that you share a part of yourself.

As I send this message out, especially with children in mind, I am reminded of a poem written by SP Shepard, and it goes to say in parts — little ones do you know that your ancestors were musicians and artists, farmers and herdsmen, scientists, healers and scholars, architects and builders. Little ones do you know that in this new land you are still a wonder to behold. Little ones do you know that you are more precious to us than gold. Little ones grow, grow, grow in love, in peace, in wisdom. Little ones know that you are loved.

As an educator, I believe in boys and girls, the men and women of a greater tomorrow. I believe in the efficacy of schools, in the dignity of teaching and in the joy of serving others. I believe in wisdom as revealed in human lives as well as in the pages of a printed book, in lessons taught not so much by precept as by example, in ability to work with the hands as well as to think with the head, in everything that makes life large and lovely. I believe in beauty in the schoolroom in the home, in daily life and in the out-of-doors. I believe in laughter, in love, in faith, in all ideals and distant hopes that lure us on.

I believe in the present and its opportunities, in the future and its promises and in the divine joy of living.

Best wishes to you and yours this holiday season.

Leroy Kelly Jr.

AJFC Head Start/EHS director