New Mexico schools get surprise visit from Save the Children foundation celebrities

BLOOMFIELD, NM — Northern New Mexico saw stars Jan. 31 as actress Jennifer Garner and politician Mark Kennedy Shriver toured area schools as part of their leadership with the Save the Children foundation.

Save the Children is a 105-year-old organization aimed to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. New Mexico’s Central Consolidated and Bloomfield school districts receive funding, supplies and social services through Save the Children.

Garner, who is known for her starring roles in “13 Going on 30,” “Alias” and 50 other movies and shows, made the most of her trip, meeting school children and staff, and even trying traditional Diné foods.

As Garner and Shriver walked down the hall at a Bloomfield Elementary School, children lined up, waved and greeted the duo. Teachers couldn’t contain their excitement either, smiling ear-to-ear and grabbing their cell phones to record.

Garner commented on a sign in the hallway highlighting the students’ literacy.

“Are you telling me you guys have read over one million words?!” she gushed. “What? That’s a lot of books!”

Garner read to students in the Save the Children intervention classroom and visited the school mural which was painted to garner support for the program, posing with star-struck staff.

“She was always humble and gracious. I can’t say enough good things about her,” said Patricia Marquez, federal programs director for Bloomfield School District. “In one of the videos I have, she’s saying, ‘this is the best welcome we’ve ever gotten.’ (The children) did a song with the music teacher, a little child read a bilingual Spanish and English welcoming speech. It was really beautiful and it was really about the kids.”

Marquez was aware that Shriver and Save the Children representatives would be coming to visit, but only found out Garner would be coming a day ahead of time. Garner’s assistants came early and briefed her. Marquez was told she needed to remain tight-lipped about the visit due to safety reasons, as apparently in the past Garner’s site visits had led to “unbelievable pandemonium.”

“They wanted to ensure that the focus stayed upon the work of the team and the children we serve,” Marquez said.

Marquez had experienced celebrities in the school before. In 2014, when she was principal at Nizhoni Elementary in Shiprock, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez and politician Jeb Bush came to visit to congratulate them on their school grade improvement.

“You can have celebrities come, but at the end of the day when you celebrate kids that’s always a blessing,” Marquez said. “I get starstruck but I want to perpetuate that passion for healthy children and helping the underserved and those children that need it, and making them believe that they can do anything.”

Traditional foods

For lunch, Garner tried mutton stew with frybread, Naashjizhii and Tąą’niil corn dishes, Chííł Chin pudding and Navajo Tea.

Later in the afternoon, Garner and Shriver traveled to Ojo Amarillo Elementary School in Fruitland for a Save the Children meeting with school district leaders. Also in attendance was ECHO food bank and Bidii Baby Foods owners.

“They are really working to get more traditional Indigenous foods in the school lunch menu and to serve children that are coming from more low-income families to make sure they have more high-quality foods when they go to school,” said Mary Ben, who runs Bidii with husband Zachariah in a farm near Shiprock.

Bidii produces baby food like Navajo dried steamed corn cereal to increase access to traditional foods in early childhood. They received a $110,000 grant from Save the Children last year to help increase production. Garner is also co-owner of Once Upon a Farm baby foods, and Garner and Ben began talking about partnership.

“I was like, ‘What? That’s crazy!’ That’s exciting and we hope that that comes to fruition as well,” Ben said. “Save the Children has been a good partner to us. In addition to the money, they’ve also given us multiple pallets worth of toys and books we’ve been able to distribute at the farm, too.”

Ben was also impressed that Garner and Shriver came out in person.

“I think a lot of people that are on boards kind of stay where they’re at,” Ben said. “So for them to come all the way out to Ojo and do a site visit and meet with everyone, that was pretty cool.”

And the celebrities did more than just show up. Garner visited the home of young mother Leighlynn Yazzie and her daughter, who are receiving support from the home visit aspect of Save the Children program. Shriver is a former Maryland House of Delegates member and part of the famous Kennedy and Shriver families — he is John F. Kennedy’s nephew and was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s brother-in-law. Kennedy used his political background to advocate for more funding for Save the Children when he and Garner attended the New Mexico legislative session in Santa Fe the day after the site visits.

Helping Navajo families

Save the Children has done much for Navajo families in New Mexico.

Dr. Elfreda Harvey, Central Consolidated School District (CCSD) social safety services coordinator, was one of the attendees of the meeting at Ojo Amarillo. She said CCSD has 17 schools, with 14 of them being on the Navajo Reservation. CCSD boasts a student body comprised of 92% Navajo students, she noted, and Navajo students make up 40% of the Bloomfield School District population.

“McKinney-Vento (McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act) is our biggest program, and under that we do have students that are in need of that added support,” Harvey said. “So Save the Children has been helping us and supporting us and collaborating with our district.”

CCSD partnered with Save the Children a few years ago, and donated books, hygiene products and backpacks with school supplies.

“Right now we have three of their staff housed in three of our elementary schools and so they’re going to be working through the elementary schools to help reach out to the prenatal, early childhood children, and start working with them and their parents to increase literacy…to help prepare (the young ones) to become students in our district,” she said.

Harvey said it was a surreal experience to be sitting with Garner and Shriver, who were diligently taking notes, discussing the needs of the students and assessing how they could better serve them.

“They wanted to know how Save the Children, and even themselves as leaders and representatives, could improve the partnership and what can they do to enhance the support that they’re already providing,” Harvey said. “It was a really good discussion. It gave us the opportunity to talk to them about our community, who our people are, who our kids are, our children and our students, and give them a glimpse of our culture too…”

Harvey said she was a little star struck, but was able to keep it professional.

“Overall, because of their humble demeanor, I think that made a big difference for all of us who were in attendance,” Harvey said. “It was such an awesome experience but our conversation really did focus on the work that we all do together and our focus was on our students and our youth.”