During the planning stages of this issue, we kept hearing the same strong suggestions from Reynolds Members and leaders of local nonprofit groups: Will The Victory Train be in the issue?
Did you speak with Theresa at The Victory Train? Have you heard what The Victory Train is doing?
It has been only six years since The Victory Train left the station, so to speak, yet anyone who knows about the grassroots movement calls it one
of the greatest examples of progress they’ve ever heard. Its founder, Reynolds Member Theresa Kemp, adds a layer of intrigue when she says, “I really didn’t know exactly what I was pursuing. We didn’t even have a name. But once the word got out about The Victory Train, the momentum and impact surpassed our wildest expectations.”
THE ENGINEER
Theresa grew up one of 10 siblings in Texas. As of this writing, she has 36 nieces and nephews, and 20 grandchildren.
“I thought I’d have 10 children of my own,” she says, “but that wasn’t God’s plan for me. Instead, He gave me the 380 children in The Victory Train.”
For a mental picture, envision two trains lined up, side by side, representing life cycles. Toward the end of one train are adults trying to work themselves out of poverty. Toward the end of the other train are adult professionals in business and trades. To see why the lives on the trains are so different, scan to the other end — to the very first cars on the tracks.
“The direction a person takes in life goes hand-in-hand with education, and education starts at birth,” Theresa says. She launched Victory Train in 2018 to equip parents with basic learning materials (puzzles, books, stickers) to make sure their children were prepared for a K-12 education, and beyond, before it’s too late.
Parent need to know they are the first and most important teachers in the lives of their children
Theresa Kemp
The “too late” part happens faster — and more often — than most of us might believe.
“I had a hard time believing it myself until I researched why so many students in Greene County weren’t graduating high school,” Theresa says. “What I discovered made the ground shake under my feet.”
THE TRACK
The runway for The Victory Train traces back to something Theresa witnessed when she chaired the Greene County Habitat for Humanity: the impact of computers and mentoring (page 15) among students who lived in Habitat homes.
“Those kids had educational resources that allowed them to shine,” Theresa says, pointing to their 94% graduation rate compared with 65% for the general student population at the time. “When education is low, poverty is high, and vice versa. Too many kids grow up in that perpetual cycle. Those are the children I felt called to reach.”
She pulled up statistics for the time period that showed nearly 40% of high school students were unable to read at a 5th grade level. So, she stepped back to the middle school.
“The middle school teachers told me a lot of their students were already too far behind.”
Theresa went to elementary school teachers who told her the same thing: it’s too late for some 3rd graders. The most chilling feedback came when a group of teachers said more than half the children entering kindergarten were not ready on the first day of school. Many didn’t know how to open a book or the difference between a circle and a square.
“It pained them to admit those kids most likely would not graduate from high school,” Theresa says. “I couldn’t accept the idea that the fate of a 5-year-old child might already be sealed.”
She would go where no one else had gone: back to the first car on the train — the crib — and fill it with the most basic learning materials. Picture books, tactile toys, and puzzles. The ground shook again when mothers in underserved neighborhoods shared their own revelation: No one told me I was supposed to read with my children. No one showed me how to play with them on the floor.
“They wanted to be great mothers,” Theresa says, “but here’s the key point: None of this had been modeled to them. That’s what we needed to change.”
THE CONDUCTORS
The foundational message to parents on The Victory Train states, “You are your child’s first and most important teacher.” It resonated.
The first group of volunteers wondered, however, why more parents weren’t coming to pick up The Victory Train’s age-appropriate packets.
“We offered free dinners and gift cards, and they still didn’t come” Theresa says about her own learning experience in the earliest days of The Victory Train. “But parents would call and ask if someone could take the learning materials to them. That’s when I realized they weren’t coming to us because they worked multiple jobs or didn’t have transportation.”
The Victory Train would need to go deep into the community, door to door and face to face. People in the neighborhoods — former educators, grandmothers, aunts — would be “delivery angels.” One volunteer angel, with no car, began to pull a wagon around public housing like an ice-cream truck. For mothers who hadn’t been shown how to care for a baby, the delivery angels brought baby bathtubs, diapers, and coaching. They replaced the fear of the unknown with the joy of motherhood.
“I carry The Victory Train packets everywhere — in the grocery store, in the bank, wherever — and I tell everyone I meet ‘there’s no reason not to do this,’” says Janis Champion, a retired teacher whose last name perfectly describes her role around the community. “I’ve met women who say, ‘Oh, is my baby supposed to sit on my lap?’ Think about that. There’s a limit to how much a schoolteacher can do in a room full of students who don’t know how to hold a pencil. What we’re doing with The Victory Train works. We’re giving these parents the tools their own parents never had. I’m convinced it will make a generational difference for the entire community.”
A quote from Frederick Douglas inspires me every day: 'It's easier to build a strong child than to repair a broken man
Theresa Kemp
THE PASSENGERS
Shaquita Wheeler never forgot Janis Champion from elementary school.
“She was one of my first teachers,” Shaquita says. Now, Janis delivers The Victory Train packets to Shaquita and mentors her, so the former student can be her daughter’s first and best teacher. “I never realized how valuable sight words and flash cards could be until Miss Champion showed me how to use them.”
Two years ago, Janis was making her normal rounds with The Victory Train packets in another neighorhood when she saw toys in a front yard. Seeing an opportunity, she knocked on the door and met Blanca Jiminez of Guatemala and her son, Alonso.
“Miss Champion gave us math games and books and demonstrated how I could be an important part of Alonso’s early education every day,” Blanca says. “She gave me peace of mind that my son will not fall behind in school. I know he will be okay.”
THE NEXT DESTINATION
Can you envision The Victory Train now? See the kids in each car representing stages of growth, full of confidence and purpose all the way from kindergarten to careers. Theresa sees it all clearly. She can also hear the sound of happiness pouring from the open windows.
“The most beautiful part is that the entire community is working together to move the train forward. So, I see kids, parents, teachers, everyone celebrating. That’s the best kind of victory.”
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