03/25/2024
As a poor kid in Wichita I walked a few blocks to Payne Elementary School in kindergarten & part of first grade. Divorce & Abandonment led to being left alone in Tulsa without parents along with my late brother Robert.
Years later, I established Tommy’s Fund to buy clothes for underserved children at Payne which we did for many years, under 5 principals. Three principals Marcia Shepler, Donna Welty Simpson, & Tina Young have been exceptional in their support for actualizing Tommy’s Fund’s Mission.
A few weeks ago, the Wichita School Board voted to close Payne and other schools, citing deferred maintenance costs, among their reasons. Payne is one of the few things its economically challenged neighborhood had to call its own.
Closing Payne is a gut punch to me, the students & alums, the faculty & staff, and my old and still poverty stricken neighborhood.
Tomorrow is our final Tommy’s Fund Shopper with four children, the principal, a Payne staffer, the children’s grandmother, my cousin Debbie & me.
I’m heartbroken yet blessed to have had the pleasure & opportunity to provide tens of thousands of dollars, and clothes to many dozens of Payne students. Shopping for the children has created beautiful and cherished days for me on the calendar.
God bless the children, the principals and staff, & my cousin Debbie. They helped this dream come alive. What a privilege we shared. God bless them, every one!
