| | | This year, Pando is focused on providing students with mentors. For many PandoKids™, a weekly or monthly meeting with a volunteer helps to improve attendance. Volunteering with Pando is flexible, fun, and rewarding! Cloud Elementary works with the Wichita State University Women's Tennis team to provide volunteer opportunities for their players. WSU students spend time once a week with a student or group of students reading, having lunch, playing kickball, and much more! Pando currently has 100 volunteers across 22 schools, but there are HUNDREDS more PandoKids™ who would benefit from spending time with you. Whether you are an individual, business, or organization; we have a volunteer opportunity for you that will help our PandoKids™ thrive in school! 84% of our PandoKids™ improved their grades in Math and Literacy after meeting with a volunteer. 100% of PandoKids™ told us that meeting with their volunteer or groups is the highlight of their school day. 98% of PandoKids™ successfully graduate from high school. Pando has a full time Student Support Advocate in 22 schools in Wichita, Derby, and Haysville that offer multiple volunteer opportunities: - Mentoring/tutoring (once per week)
- One-time volunteering
- Group activities
- Guest speakers
- Special interest volunteering
Take a break from your busy day and spend time with a PandoKid. Click the link below to sign up to volunteer. Help a student thrive! Take the initiative today! |
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| | | Monique Garcia met with her first PandoKid at Cloud Elementary 15 years ago. Since then, she has impacted the lives of countless students by simply meeting with them once a week while they are a student at Cloud. During their time, Monique and her students love to read, play board games, and just talk. She believes it is important to be a positive part of her PandoKids' lives. Monique currently meets with 4th grader Hayley, and their friendship is one of the sweetest things we have ever seen! Pando is grateful for Monique's leadership, inspiration, and support! Monique's family restaurant, Connie's Mexico Cafe, was a featured chef at Cooking for a Cause. Monique served samples of their delicious dishes to raise money for Pando! Check out the feature story with KSN's Julia Thatcher to see and hear more about how both Monique and her PandoKids™ are thriving! |
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| | Equity Bank Volunteers at RealityU™  On October 10th, 175 students at Mead Middle School were able to experience RealityU™ thanks to employees at Equity Bank. RealityU™ is a financial literacy program powered by Pando that travels to middle and high schools throughout the state. Equity Bank employees staffed the program and helped students make decisions on monthly purchases such as car payments, mortgage, childcare, food and even credit cards and savings. “Helping students understand how their performance in school can impact their future is important and something Equity Bank wanted to invest in,” said Angela Back, Equity Bank Vice President & Loan Officer and Pando Board Member. “One student was great with her budget, completed every booth including retirement and then decided to donate to her friends so they had enough money to purchase groceries. What an awesome leader!” Thank you, Equity Bank, for investing in RealityU™ and Pandokids™! If you are interested in sponsoring or volunteering at a RealityU™ event near you, please contact Jess Ciriaco at jciriaco@pandokids.org |
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| | Cooking for a Cause 2022 Cooking for a Cause, Pando's signature fundraising event, raised $172,500 for Pando Kids! Our community's generosity ensures the Pando Initiative will continue to connect students in Wichita, Derby and Haysville to services that keep them in school. This year's event also included nearly 30 volunteers who helped make the evening a success! THANK YOU for helping PandoKids™ thrive! |
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Healthy Snacks with Cargill Thanks to Cargill, students will receive healthy snacks this school year. Funds from a Cargill Cares grant will support Healthy Snack Pantries at 22 Pando schools.The snack pantries are filled with healthy snacks, including fresh fruits and vegetables. Supplementing school meals with healthy snacks allows PandoKids™ the fuel they need to manage hunger and boost nutrition. In addition, employees from Cargill volunteered at West High School to clean up the community garden. The garden was planted last year thanks to funds provided by Cargill. Volunteers helped prepare the garden for this year’s crop! Thank you Cargill for being a true Pando partner! |
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| | Pando is on Tik Tok! Pando is excited to launch a new and fun social media page to share what we are up to at our Pando schools! We even have our first video posted. Be sure to follow us on Tik Tok @PandoKids. @PandoKids on Tik Tok will feature real, unedited and entertaining short clips from our staff and PandoKids™ from schools across Wichita, Derby, and Haysville. And who knows, we might even blow up and become Tik Tok famous! |
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| |  Mission: Pando connects with students to help them engage and thrive in education and their future. Programs: We partner with schools and community to provide students with mentoring, life skills, and basic needs through PandoKids™ and RealityU™. www.pandokids.org -Contact us-
412 S Main | Wichita, Kansas 67202
info@pandokids.org |
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