Mascot Kickz. Photo by Dustin Vyers.
The Carroll Independent School District Parent/TeacherbrOrganization for Special Programs Vice President of Fundraising, Andi Stone,brsat down with Southlake Style for abrbrief Q&A session to discuss the importance of the program and why MascotbrKickz are beneficial for every Dragon.
Why is the CISD PTObrSpecial Programs important?
I'm a parent of a 9-year-old boy with severe autism and Downbrsyndrome. He's nonverbal. We moved into this school district four years agobrfrom out of state, and we didn't know anyone. Personally, I learn best frombrother parents who have gone through the same thing, but I'm not necessarily abrsupport group kind of person. Cassie James, our president, and I were talkingbrthree years ago right at the beginning of the school year and we both thoughtbrit would be great if we had an organization that's just like a PTO, except it raisesbrmoney specifically for special education and English-as-a-second-languagebrprograms. It could also be an opportunity to meet other parents who are goingbrthrough the same thing because often, you don't have that support system. Whenbryou have an organization for people to join and you get together for meetings, thenbryou meet the people you can relate to.
What are the goals ofbrthe CISD PTO Special Programs?
We want to support and collaborate with the school districtbrby raising money. We want to help train teachers and our other professionalbreducators because many of them have kids with higher functioning autism.brAnother goal is to raise awareness. Carroll ISD is so overachieving that youbroften hear all the great things going on, but you don't really hear much aboutbrthe neurotypical kids. This gives us an opportunity to have a voice to pointbrout their successes, like when our Special Olympics kids win goal medals at nationalsbror when different businesses in town hire high school or graduated specialbrneeds kids. We wanted to be a communication and support system for the parentsbrbecause parents with special needs kids need a lot of support. We just want tobrbring more awareness to the fact that this is a growing epidemic, and we're notbrjust talking about autism, but children with learning disabilities, too. All ofbrthat is going up in numbers, and there needed to be an organization that specificallybrcatered to that population.
How did the CISD PTObrSpecial Programs get involved with Mascot Kickz?
Mascot Kickz is a pretty new company. The owner, KerrybrHorton, is an alumnus of Grambling State, which was the first school that hebrdid the shoes with. They recently moved to Dallas from Louisiana, and he didbrsome research about what schools are crazy about their mascot. In many schoolbrdistricts, each school has a different mascot until you get to high school, butbrwe're different. We're all Dragons, and he really liked that because hebrwouldn't be selling to one school. He's selling to the whole district andbreveryone who supports the Dragons. He contacted the CISD marketing departmentbrto get the rights to use the Dragon logo and asked if there were anybrorganizations he could team up with because he wants to give back. Thebrmarketing department sent me an email and said, ‘Hey, this is an opportunitybryou might be interested in.' I talked to Kerry, and he actually has a specialbrneeds family member, so he said, ‘Oh yes, I'm so glad you called me. I'm gladbrthat you have this organization.' Mascot Kickz is so generous. They give 20brpercent back to the organization, so it's a $50 pair of shoes, but we get $10brfor every pair of shoes we sell.
ThebrCISD PTO for Special Programs
- brDistrict organization that supports specialbrprograms for 11 campuses
- brSupports special needs students, including Downbrsyndrome, ADHD/ADD and autism
- brNonprofit organization
BoardbrMembers
- brCassie James, President
- brSheila Crafton, Vice President of Programs
- brJulie Varriale, Treasurer
- brAndi Stone, Vice President of Fundraising
- brAngela Kwentus, Secretary/Parliamentaria
- Denny Singh, Programs Assistant