Charles Elwood for West Ottawa School Board

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• Holland, Michigan, is home to Lao, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Karen families. Ottawa County has the largest Lao community in Michigan. I helped a group of students, many from West Ottawa and our Interact club, travel to Thailand, and I served as their translator. We also met the Interact club at Hua Hin School. At the end of the trip, Mrs. Snoap told me I brought life and real experience to the buildings. But my moment was when two of the girls on our trip, both half Lao, told me they saw peopl

  20 October 2026 · Charles Elwood for West Ottawa School Board · $0 – $99 · 1K+ impressions · Promotional · Ad Library

• This is why I’m running for the West Ottawa Board of Education: to help every student discover their own voice, pursue their own path, and know that what they have to say matters. My friend Chris Martin was a radio DJ (in Green Bay, Wisconsin). After his second surgery for throat cancer, he could no longer speak. He had spent years using his voice for a living. Chris told me people would sometimes come up and ask him a question, then walk away when he didn’t answer out loud. They thought he wa

  16 October 2026 · Charles Elwood for West Ottawa School Board · $0 – $99 · 100+ impressions · Promotional · Ad Library

• Two of our sons graduated from West Ottawa, the third is a sophomore, and I’m on the ballot for the school board on November 3. I am half Thai and had heard about and seen the diversity at West Ottawa, but I wanted to know the real numbers. I had also heard about chronic absenteeism and how it was improving at West Ottawa after the pandemic. Again, as an engineer, I wanted to see the numbers. MI School Data is notoriously difficult to navigate, so I wanted to see the data in the way I know is

  16 October 2026 · Charles Elwood for West Ottawa School Board · $0 – $99 · 8K+ impressions · Promotional · Ad Library

• I'm running for the West Ottawa Board of Education to show up for every student, the way my grandmother did. This one's for you, Grandma. In 1949 my grandmother, Donna Elwood, earned her two-year teaching certificate at Montana State Normal College in Dillon. Her first job, in the 1950-51 school year, was at the Olof School, a one-room schoolhouse north of Twodot, Montana. She was the only teacher, and she had grades 1 through 8. She lived next door in the teacherage. There was limited electri

  25 September 2026 · Charles Elwood for West Ottawa School Board · $0 – $99 · 4K+ impressions · Promotional · Ad Library

• Thai was my first language. When I started at the International School Bangkok, I failed the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. That landed me in ESL class. That class gave me English, and it gave me something bigger. It made me bilingual. Later my family moved to Indonesia, where I picked up some Bahasa. Then to the Netherlands, where I learned some Dutch. Growing up between worlds means I have never fully felt like I belong in any one place. I am still searching. But I learned that speaking more tha

  11 September 2026 · Charles Elwood for West Ottawa School Board · $0 – $99 · 3K+ impressions · Promotional · Ad Library

• Elizabeth Musick Elwood and I have had a blast driving the Lakeshore planting yard signs this week. The school bus design clearly resonates, and thank you to everyone who asked for one. We are officially out of signs, so a second batch is on order, and five of them will have my name in Thai/Lao. Fun fact: I'm half Thai, and Thai was my first language, so this one is special to me. If you have a great spot for one, send me a message and we'll come park a little school bus in your yard. I reme

  2 September 2026 · Charles Elwood for West Ottawa School Board · $0 – $99 · 1K+ impressions · Promotional · Ad Library