Stop by any Washington or Baltimore area Safeway store throughout the 2010 Holiday Season and please make a donation at check out to support Neediest Kids.

Neediest Kids works with these area school systems:

Washington, D.C:

-Archdiocese of Washington

-D.C. Public and Public Charter Schools

Maryland:

-Frederick County Public Schools

-Montgomery County Public Schools

-Prince George's County Public Schools

Virginia:

-Alexandria City Public Schools

-Arlington County Public Schools

-Fairfax County Public Schools

-Loudoun County Public Schools

Neediest Kids works with the schools systems in the Greater Washington Area to ensure students have access to basic necessities to stay in school and thrive. Schools depend on Neediest Kids to provide funds to purchase what is needed most for their students to attend class and to be ready to learn:

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, along with Gov. Martin O’Malley and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, will visit Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Md., as a part of NEA’s celebration of American Education Week (AEW). They will address the need to attract more bright young people into the teaching profession, and then they will take questions from students.

American Education Week, held November 14-20, honors teachers and support professionals who have dedicated themselves to the education of young people. Celebrated the week prior Thanksgiving, AEW began in 1921 as a way to generate public support for education at a time when illiteracy was a major problem.

Thursday, November 18, 2010, 9:15– 10:30 a.m.

The Gazette reports that sharing words of wisdom from Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, General George S. Patton and modern-day pastor and author John C. Maxwell, high school students hoping to one day be decision-makers in Montgomery County honed their skills and learned new ones.

Students in Youth Leadership Montgomery, a program that teaches young people leadership skills, community awareness and confidence, shared the inspiring quotes at a recent session designed to improve their public speaking skills.

Not all 14 students at the Oct. 15 meeting of the group took their inspiration from influential men and women though. Lissette Escobar, 15, a sophomore at Poolesville High School, found hers on a T-shirt: "Leadership is action, not a position."