Lions Park students team up to spread message of empowerment

A new club at Lions Park Elementary School in Mount Prospect is providing a fertile ground for ideas, among them creating a community garden.

The EmpowerHer Club started in December and now numbers 15 members, all girls, who meet on the first Thursday of the month.

Nancy Bildir, mother of one of the girls, said they wanted to talk about girls’ issues, as well as foster leadership and build confidence in their ability to change things.

Her daughter, fourth-grader Ayla Bildir, 10, said, “We needed more empowerment in women.”

Ayla said one confidence building tool the club developed was a compliment jar. If someone has complimented a student or said something nice, the student will take a piece of paper, write down their name and what they said.

The group has had the support of Lions Park Principal Katie Kelly, who reads from the writings placed in the compliment jar at the beginning of the day on Friday.

Kelly has also permitted Ayla to make speeches at two of the lunches for all the grades.

“What’s been most powerful is how excited and engaged the students in the club have been in sharing their message by promoting compliment sharing among students,” Kelly said. “Their positivity is spreading throughout our school, so they are already making such a meaningful impact.”

Nine-year-old club member Sienna Altergott said the group has also created posters featuring such messages as “Don’t bully” and displayed them in the lunchroom.

But the club’s ambitions go beyond the school. At the most recent Mount Prospect Coffee With Council, an informal venue for talking with the village board, Nancy and Ayla proposed the community garden.

The community garden would be led by volunteers, ideally adults that know how to garden. The children would join them in growing it.

Ayla said the garden would also have an area devoted to donating everything from canned goods and blankets to hygiene products.

“We wanted to do a community project, and we decided on doing a garden. But we also want to help people who can't afford things that they need to have. So we decided that we should combine them,” Ayla said.

The club approached the village board for ideas on how the project could move forward, and trustees and village staff had valuable suggestions, including partnering with the village’s garden club.

“We would have to think it through and see how we would do that,” Mayor Paul Hoefert said. “You have come to the right place.”