Sonia Vazquez

My name is Sonia Vasquez. I was born and raised here in Bethlehem on the South Side. I lived about two blocks away from Donegan Elementary School, where I presently am the principal. I've been here approximately eight years.

The Bethlehem Steel was thriving back then when I was younger, but over time, the Steel became more labored with less workers and less work that was being produced. People being laid off. People were moving away. People were going back. Many immigrants resided here, and many of them went back. The level of poverty went up, the level of needs increased, as well. But the money wasn't 00:01:00there, and the Bethlehem Steel was now under and nonexistent. It was difficult for families to find work and find appropriate work.

Prior to the casino coming into Bethlehem, the community was concerned, and myself included, and there were studies that were being done. There were groups that were coming together to talk about the issues of what could happen when a casino-- When you hear the word casino, it is nerve wracking to think that coming into an area that is already burdened with poverty and with other issues, you now have a family who sees a casino there and takes a little money that they 00:02:00have. Perhaps they need to take care of their own basic needs and try to come up with the dream of hitting the casinos and making more money. A quick fix is not the answer. That concerned us as a community. We didn't want that to happen. The casinos did hear our concerns because they put many things in place to minimize that happening. And does it happen? I'm sure it's happened, but I have not seen or heard through our families that that people are walking over there and wasting all their money in the casino. That's not happening.

I started to reach out to people that I knew that were in positions of power 00:03:00that were able to help me navigate getting to know the different companies and different groups of people that were willing to assist in the venture of exposing our children to opportunities. I formed partnerships with many local businesses, small businesses, whether it was a grocery store or a lawyer's office or a small company, who were willing to partner with my classroom to expose the children to different opportunities. Our children, our own children, would naturally have that opportunity. The children in my classroom were not able to do that. Once the Sands Casino came into play, their goal initially when they came to the Lehigh Valley was to make a difference in the community. 00:04:00Needless to say, when they opened, I was knocking on your door to say, 'There is a need here is a community right in your backyard that can utilize assistance.' That's where it started.

It took me a little bit of time to really get in there and sit down, but with the assistance of local people within the community, like Roger Hudak, we were able to get in and sit down and voice our needs for our community. And they listened. We had the data to show what our needs were, and they were willing to put out what it was that we needed.

It certainly wasn't money because at the time, it's not a doable thing. But there were other needs, whether it was through busing to give our children opportunities to take trips. The Sands provided us that opportunity by providing 00:05:00transportation to our children early on. From our four year-olds all the way up to our fifth graders, whenever an opportunity arises to be able to go somewhere and meet someone or have an experience, they have that opportunity. It is not for lack of having busing. And busing is very, very expensive. It's undoable. If they did not do this for us, it would be undoable because I cannot raise enough money to be able to provide our children with these experiences.

Whether it was volunteers in order to have extra assistance during the day or 00:06:00after school or programs in the summer, or even provide family nights. The collaboration of the educational system and the Sands really became tight with both sides giving and offering assistance to make it possible for the kids to thrive.

Not only the children, but the families needed the support in order to rise above the poverty issues. The movement from only working with the children moved into working with their families. It became a collective collaboration because not only did we pull in with the Sands, but then at the same time, local 00:07:00universities like Lehigh University.

One of the main changes that has occurred at our school is having the family engagement become powerful in our building with our children and with the entire school. How that has come about is our families are very family-oriented, and they will not leave their families at home. When it is supper time, it is supper time for the family. It is not a time when you can pull families from their 00:08:00homes to come here to either be educated in the reading program or talk about issues that are happening community-wide. What we have figured out with the collaboration with the Sands is that we are able to provide meals for the entire family so that we are given the opportunity to bring the families as a whole to the school, provide them with a nutritious meal--not just pizza--a meal. At the same time, we are able to collaborate with the parents, provide babysitting for the children, and address issues and educational issues. We also educate the families, the adults, so that they know exactly what is happening in the lives in the school of their children. The Sands has provided that opportunity for us 00:09:00to do that. That's huge, because as I said before now, where I couldn't get 10 people, I can get hundreds of people to come to every event that we have at the school.

Different venues gave us the opportunity to allow our parents to find careers and jobs, paying jobs that would allow them to take care of the basic needs of their families. The children were taken care of. Their families were taken care of. It filtered into the community because as a school, we became 00:10:00like the hub of the community. Together with all our partners, we helped take care of the poverty issue, and it extended into the community and a bettered the community.

I've been made aware that there's a new company who will be taking on the casino. It's called Wind Creek. From what I understand, they are a very community based operation, which is the first thing that you see on their website. My hope is that nothing will change. If anything, we will be able to 00:11:00enhance the work that we do as a partner with them.