Habla Friends of River Glen Elementary

Helping Advance Bilingual Language Literacy & Achievement (HABLA) is River Glen’s all-volunteer parent organization. We are a charitable 501(c)3 organization. Every family member with a student at River Glen is automatically a member of HABLA. HABLA is led by Committees and a Board of Directors of elected representatives.

HABLA raises approximately $100,000 each year to support a number of critical school programs, including classroom art & music instruction, academic enrichment opportunities, classroom technology and school supplies.

Additionally, twice a year, HABLA organizes a school beautification day where parents and students clean the campus, garden, and paint. However, HABLA has created a school beautification project that consists of more than pulling weeds and picking up trash twice a year. HABLA's goals for the school beautification project are: (1) to buy plants and trees so parent volunteers can improve campus landscape; (2) to add outdoor seating/benches to school grounds; (3) to install art display cases on exterior student hallways; and (4) to create cultural and ethnic murals on the school buildings. HABLA wants the staff, parents and students of River Glen School to be proud of their campus. HABLA believes that a well-maintained school provides a safe and attractive learning environment for students. Children deserve to be surrounded by beauty. A beautiful environment at school is conducive to learning and encourages respect for one’s school, respect for others and respect for oneself.

 

For years, HABLA, has envisioned creating cultural and ethnic murals on the school buildings. James D. and Eva S. Crockcroft in a 1978-issue of Radical America wrote "Community murals have a distinctive relationship to social change: they are concrete public expressions of a community's values, problems, or goals." HABLA hopes that the murals will help the students develop a better understanding and appreciation of the communities strengths and struggles for social justice. We hope that the murals can depict symbols of ethnic and radical pride, issues related to social justice, decorative symbols, homage to local and national heroes, and symbolic locations.

By having a well maintained and beautiful campus that students are proud of, HABLA can continue to help the students develop academic excellence, bilingualism, and biliteracy while developing positive multicultural understanding that promotes respect, inclusion, serving others, and accepting responsibility.

Join us in helping beautify the campus of River Glen School- your contribution will affect hundreds of students not just today, but for many years to come!