Owner of local yarn and fabric store, Jimmy Beans Wool, Laura Zander, found herself taking on a whole new role on Thursday, October 11th as she became Principal for a Day at Cannon Elementary School in Reno.
A participant in the event created by The Education Alliance of Washoe County, in partnership with the Washoe County School District (WCSD), Zander joined 26 other local community leaders in shadowing a school principal for a day. She followed Cannan Elementary School's Principal, Bryan Myers on her list of responsibilities including things like staff meetings, classroom observation and evaluation, bus duty, interactions with students, teachers and parents, administrative tasks and lunchroom duty.
"I was honored to be asked to participate in this event," said Zander. "It really gave me great insight to the immense efforts and attention our school administrators put forth each day to strengthen public education in our community."
The second half of the day's program was a debriefing session that was facilitated by Dean Whellams, director of development for Q&D Construction, and held at Microsoft Licensing's local office. Feedback was gathered from all of the business leaders and principals in order to be evaluated for future participants and events.
This is the sixth time the Principal for a Day event has been organized by the Education Alliance. Plans are to continue providing this opportunity to the business community with a future event.
For more information about Jimmy Beans Wool and/or to request an interview with Jimmy Beans Wool Owner, Laura Zander, please contact Kaity Ocean at kaity@jimmybeanswool.com or 775-857-1320.
About the Education Alliance of Washoe County
Our mission is to foster education excellence in Washoe County through a community and education partnership that provides leadership, advocacy, programming and targeted financial support. The Education Alliance fosters educational excellence through a variety of educational programming while implementing and sustaining a comprehensive development plan to raise funds through annual giving, endowment, major gifts, special projects and public grants. For more information about the Education Alliance, please contact Denise Hedrick, Executive Director, at (775) 353-5533 or visit www.ed-alliance.org
About the Washoe County School District
The Washoe County School District includes the Reno/Sparks metropolitan area, Incline Village, Gerlach, Empire and Wadsworth Nevada. The District provides each of its 63,000 students with a superior education in a safe and challenging environment and is committed to graduate every child career and college ready. For more information please visit www.washoecountyschools.org. Follow them on twitter at WCSDTweet.
About Jimmy Beans Wool
Jimmy Beans Wool is a yarn and fabric retailer offering knitters, crocheters and sewers worldwide a comprehensive selection of the finest yarns and fabrics along with the latest fashion trends. As a market leader in its multi-billion dollar industry, Jimmy Beans Wool takes an innovative, unparalleled approach to marketing. It is the first-ever official yarn, knitting and crochet supplier to U.S. Snowboarding and U.S. Freeskiing and is responsible for the national industry-wide Stitch Red campaign against heart disease in women. The store has been awarded an excellent rating from StellaService for its outstanding customer service reputation and has been named four times to the Inc. 5000, Inc. Magazine's List of Fastest Growing Private Companies in the U.S and three times to the BizRate Circle of Excellence. It has also been featured on CNN and NPR and in Forbes and the New York Times.