Wallace State Nursing outreach program benefits from Walmart grant
HANCEVILLE, Ala. — A program at Wallace State Community College that provides Safety and Wellness Education for Lifestyle Learning (SWELL) to Cullman county and city second- and third-grade students got a boost recently from a Walmart Foundation grant.
SWELL, which includes a partnership with the Children’s of Alabama Kids on the Block puppet troupe, received at $1,000 Community Grant from Walmart as part of the celebration surrounding the opening of the new Cullman location on Alabama Highway 157. Nursing instructor Janet Brown and a number of her students were on hand for the presentation.
“I am extremely grateful for Walmart’s support of our program,” Brown said. “We’ve been in service since last fall and have presented awareness and safety programs to thousands of elementary school students in Cullman. This grant will help us continue with those efforts.”
Nursing students at Wallace State volunteer their time to learn how to be a puppeteer, memorize the skits they perform at local schools, and take part in the productions. Through Kids on the Block, the program has many options to choose from for their skits. There are dozens of skits dealing with disability awareness and medical and education differences, as well as social and safety issues.
Brown has taken the puppetry troupe and students from other Wallace State allied health programs to local schools for SWELL events. The Wallace State students set up stations that the elementary students visit to learn about things like fire safety, drug safety, water safety, dental hygiene and more. The puppetry troupe also presents a skit on a specific subject matter such as bullying, asthma education, or bike helmet safety.
For more information about Wallace State Nursing or any other program, visit www.wallacestate.edu or call 256.352.8000.
Registration for the Spring 2016 semester is currently underway. Regular and Mini Term I (8-week sessions) classes will begin on January 7, with options for day, evening, online and hybrid classes.
