The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - The Dayton School District is invit- ing parents, guardians and interested members of the community to join an effort to help children find success in school with a free dinner and presentation in the Dayton Elementary School Multipurpose Room at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, No- vember 13. Child care will be provided.

The presentation, by Walla Walla members of the Children's Resilience Initia- tive, will explain Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and ways to help children develop resiliency.

ACEs are experiences that deeply impact a young person (such as emotional abuse, physical neglect, drug or alcohol addiction in the family, or loss of a parent). ACEs, according to research that will be presented, result in actual changes in brain develop- ment.

"We want to get this information out there and let people know that as a district we are doing all we can for our students," said Dayton High School Principal Andy Maheras. "ACEs are not barriers but challenges - and how do we help kids overcome them and move on to have suc- cessful, productive lives?"