W is for Winners: Five $1,000 Grant Success Stories
In celebration of their new book, D is for Democracy, Sleeping Bear Press offered five $1,000 grants to schools that submitted the best volunteer projects to benefit their communities. The entries came. And kept coming. The turnout was tremendous – and so were the projects.
While only five entries could become winners, David Swan, Sleeping Bear Press' director of sales and marketing, was impressed: "Every proposal we read made me recall the famous Margaret Mead quote, 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.' The empathy and bright thinking found in these grant proposals gives me renewed hope for our participatory democracy."
The winning entries ranged from pie makers to reading mentors. One school created a fun kit for sick children, while another assembled backpacks for underprivileged children. Even butterflies are the beneficiaries of good works.
Helping Our Neighbors Is As Easy As Pie
Families served by the Northeast Parent Child Society (NPCS) benefit from the Duanesburg Elementary students' annual pie-making project. The grant seeds the beginning of this community food bank. The goal of this ongoing service-learning project is to empower children as humanitarians who support their community.
According to Duanesburg educator Theresa McCabe, the idea for this volunteer effort came three years ago from a Duanesburg first-grader who accompanied her father to the NPCS children's home in Schenectady, N.Y. Basic food items are always appreciated at the shelters, but "these folks do not get dessert unless it is donated." The child's "eureka" moment came when she suggested a pie-making project to benefit NPCS. About 150 apple and pumpkin pies later, the class had the makings of a real community service program on their hands.
The class continued its dedication as the children moved from first grade to third. The annual bake-off takes place each November in time for Thanksgiving delivery. In the process of giving to their community, the class learned about the plight of underprivileged children and families.
"They also learned math measurement, nutrition and working together in cooperative groups to produce the large number of pies needed," said McCabe. The kids even drafted some extra hands, in the form of the Schenectady County Community College Culinary Arts department. The local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) hall volunteered their heavy-duty kitchen; parents, faculty and students from other classrooms and NCPS recipients themselves got into the spirit, helping raise the donation of money, food and other supplies to well over $4,500 and 200 pies last November.
"Speechless" was the way the third-graders reacted to the news of their $1,000 Grassroots Volunteer win, according to their teacher. The class intends to use the money to grow their pie project into a more formalized food pantry. Dessert will not be forgotten, however: "The pie-making endeavor and related activities to support NPCS is planned to continue until the current group of third-graders graduates from high school in 2014."
Butterfly Station
Dr. Alan Fiero, who teaches 7th grade science in Guiderland, N.Y. (near Albany) found one of his ecology lesson plans filled with information about Hawaii. "We wanted to study the ecology from our own backyard," he said. Their research revealed that the Karner Blue, a butterfly native to the Albany area, was on the endangered species list. "The kids got excited about protecting that butterfly," said Dr. Fiero, and the result is the award-winning Butterfly Station, created in partnership with the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission.
A Toyota Tapestry grant (administered by the National Science Teachers Association) provided seed money – literally – to establish a butterfly sanctuary. The students collected seeds and set up a native garden filled with the plants that nourish the Karner Blue and other butterfly species in their larval and adult stages.
The students take complete charge of the sanctuary, according to Dr. Fiero: "They feed the caterpillars every day. They conduct tours. They volunteer three weeks from their summer vacation to work in the garden." In fact, more than 60 students have volunteered over the past seven years the Pine Bush preserve has been operating. Many students return year after year to work in the preserve. And it's not just humans who have embraced the Pine Bush center – "word has gotten out among the butterflies," said Fiero. Attracted by the nectar and the surroundings, numerous butterflies have made the sanctuary a favorite stop along the migration path.
Besides becoming environmental volunteers and subject-matter experts – the students even produced a respected booklet, "A Guide to New York State Butterflies" – the class has branched out into public relations, art projects and other efforts to support their sanctuary. The $1,000 Grassroots Volunteer grant from Sleeping Bear Press will go toward funding the Butterfly Station's future operations, which includes donating free seedlings so visitors can create their own native gardens.
Each One Teach One
This project partners a middle school student with a struggling reader in the lower grades. The tutors have been trained in basic phonics and leveled reading and they work one-on-one with younger students. Once the younger student has mastered a skill, based on assessment tests administered by the tutor, the student graduates to the next level.
As an introduction to altruism, Mark Hirsch's "Each One Teach One" program for middle-schoolers has been a resounding success. As a former first-grade teacher, Hirsch says it's important to read at grade level from the earliest grade possible. But with more than 25 home languages represented in the building, Marcy Middle School has its share of struggling readers. "Each One Teach One" is an elective program that ties into the middle-schoolers' curriculum.
Training the young mentors takes about five weeks, with Hirsch using the parent component of a popular phonics program as his training material. "In a way, we put the student in the place of the parent or guardian," using daily drill sheets, encouraging progress and answering questions, he said.
The tutors practice leadership and organizational skills in teaching younger students. They plan lessons and keep a journal on their proteges' progress. Lessons are conducted daily during the school day.
The results of Each One Teach One are reflected in the younger students' test scores, which have about doubled in reading since the program's inception. Just as important, the volunteer effort "breaks down barriers of language and culture" in his diverse school, said Hirsch. "The younger kids are far more at ease now. They're comfortable asking older kids for help."
The $1,000 Grassroots Volunteer prize goes toward stocking the program with leveled books, so important to an emerging reader. "These books use limited vocabulary that gets more difficult as the levels get higher," says Hirsch.
Along with the grant money, Hirsch's tutorial team has reaped emotional reward. "They're special kids," says their teacher. "They take pride when their student makes progress. They've exceeded my expectations. I'm a facilitator, but kids are taking the responsibility. They really carry the ball."
Fun Filled Foundation
Los Angeles is a city of diversity – in both the ethnic and economic sense of the word. P. J. Freimund's third-graders at Grant Elementary School in Santa Monica learned that many of their peers in Los Angeles lack the access to books and other classroom basics that the Santa Monica students enjoy. At the same time, Parent Coordinator Lianne Goldsmith said, "a lot of these children had very little in the way of educational toys or comfort toys." The Fun Filled Foundation was born.
This grassroots project set an initial goal of delivering a minimum of 30 backpacks to homeless and underserved children in Los Angeles. The backpacks will be filled with reading and educational books; pencils and crayons; toys and a Fun Filled Foundation T-shirt.
According to Goldsmith, the class geared up for volunteerism by researching what other children had accomplished in helping others. Potential projects were brainstormed, and the kids "threw out millions of ideas," Goldsmith said. "The final vote was for the backpacks."
The kids took a businesslike approach to their task, creating a Fun Filled Foundation letterhead and drafting handwritten appeals to local businesses for support. When word of the class' dedication reached the city's newspaper, a positive article helped generate more funding. Along the way, the class picked up life lessons in communication, art and persuasive writing. Goldsmith, who has a daughter in Freimund's class, volunteered a day a week to help coordinate the efforts, and helps recruit other parents into the project.
When the third-graders learned they had won a Sleeping Bear Press award of $1,000, "they were really excited, and they expected it," said Goldsmith, adding, "eight-year-olds have no doubt they'll succeed at everything." The money will stock backpacks with fun and educational items chosen by the class. And there will be plenty items to buy: the class' efforts have netted 150 donated backpacks to date, far outdistancing the goal originally set.
Fun Kits for Sick Kids
"Nearly all children can sympathize with someone who is sick and must stay in bed," explained Jerilyn Sanders, Chattanooga Coordinator of Weekend Academy. "Not many of them have been confined on a long-term basis to a hospital bed, however."
The students of the Weekend Academy have a mission: to replace boredom with fun. These kids –who are nominated to the academy's free Saturday enrichment program based on potential and economic need – are led by a team of elementary teachers and teen leaders. Hands-on learning activities, career exploration and computer training are part of the academy's program. So is volunteerism.
Fun Kits delivered to young patients at a local hospital will teach the students compassion for other children, while giving them practical skills to help put their empathy into action. The kits were created through a true democratic process that was tied into the November election: the children voted on which community-service project to adopt based on nominating speeches from high school volunteers.
Their $1,000 Sleeping Bear Press grant will help fill the fun kits. Real-life math enters the project as the students collect gift catalogs, brainstorm purchase ideas and conduct price comparisons. "They'll calculate how many kits they can create, the price per kit and how best to use their money," Sanders said.
The finished kits will be presented to the hospital in April. The children aren't allowed on the premises for health and safety reasons. But they'll be represented by personal notes included in each kit. The students are eager to begin filling their fun kits, Sanders said, "and proud that they won a contest."