“I’m raising my three grandkids after my youngest daughter, Da’Onna, passed away four years ago.”
“Da’Onna became sick and I moved in with her to help out with the kids. Four years ago, this month, she went in for a procedure and didn’t make it through. The day she passed away was like nothing I had ever expected. It was a total and complete shock.”
“I knew that my responsibility was going to be to raise her three children.”
“They were going to the local public school, and it was a good school. I had no issues with public school. But I found out my two grandsons and granddaughter were getting bullied. They would never tell me themselves, I had to find out second-hand.”
“The oldest of the three, my granddaughter, was being bullied by a couple girls. I had to sit in the class to find out what was going on. The teacher was kind and the school got to the bottom of the situation, but I had to sit in class and make call after call for it to happen.”
“I had five children of my own, that my husband and I raised – he passed away 16 years ago. When I was raising my own children, I had my husband there to help me. But this time around I didn’t have any help, it was just me and my babies. And they were being bullied. I was just praying, asking God, ‘Lord, what do I do?’”
“I started looking around for a private school to send them to. Someone mentioned Waterloo Christian, and I thought, I pass by this school all the time! I immediately made the call. Everything worked out.”
“I haven’t had any problems like that at Waterloo Christian. I went to public school, I raised my kids in public school and I’ve never had a problem with public schools. But in this day and time, in our situation, I knew I had to do something different.
“Without the school’s financial assistance, there’s no way I could possibly afford to send my three here. It’s still hard as it is. Without the scholarships we get, there’s just no way. Education savings accounts would make a big difference for us and take a lot of that weight off my shoulders.”
Coretha Monmouth
Grandmother / Caretaker
Waterloo, IA
“I know my [other] daughter would love to send her kid here. I know my sister would love to send her grandson here. They can’t afford it. Education savings accounts would make it a possibility for them.”
“My father is a pastor in this town. I was glad my grandkids were going to receive a Christian education, that it was going to become a bigger part of their life. I didn’t want them to be scared to come to school because they’d be bullied. I wanted them to be able to talk about the Lord and to be able to pray in school.”
“They feel at home at this school. They come home during the week excited to tell me what they learned or what they prayed about. And it goes hand in hand with what I teach them or what we hear at church. It’s a huge difference compared to the public school.”
“My granddaughter has always struggled with math especially. She couldn’t get the one-on-one help that she needed while in public school. When she came to Waterloo Christian, she got the attention she needed. The teacher would sit with her and have her come in for extra help or go over her work in study hall. Her grades went up and it was incredible to see.”
“For us, it was the right move. One advantage has been the smaller class sizes. Here they have around 15 in a class compared to 30 per class in the public schools. I’ve seen it make a difference in how my kids learn.
“The kids here at Waterloo Christian get a great education and that opens the door to so many great opportunities. I thank God for the opportunity to send my kids here every day.”