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By Amber Lester Kennedy
Friday, January 20, 2012
Giving selflessly isn’t something that comes naturally to all of us. It can take a little prodding, a little guilt-tripping and even tax incentives to convince us to give a little of our time or money.
If it’s hard for adults, how do you teach children the value of service? Plenty of parents have a hard time convincing their kids to share toys; it might be even harder to get them to share with someone they might not know or ever meet.
Not so, according to Teresa Randall, a kindergarten teacher at Williamsburg Christian Academy. For as long as she’s been teaching, service and charity work have been central to her kindergarten lessons.
Guided by the example of Randall and other teachers, the school has launched a schoolwide outreach program this year. Every grade level, from kindergarten to twelfth grade, took on an outreach project at the start of the school year, ranging from projects that serve the school to projects that serve the people of other countries.
Melissa Hardy, high school Bible teacher, said a committee met for a year to plan the launch of the service projects. She listed the many benefits of promoting service in school: “Changing perspectives, tolerance of other cultures, respect toward adults, change of focus from inward to outward and it changes the culture of the school.”
The outreach program’s projects are intended to be increasingly challenging, and the children take on more responsibility for planning each project until senior year, when they completely plan and raise funds for a mission trip. This year, the seniors will go to the Dominican Republic.
The projects also strengthen the ties between the students and their school, their community and each other. Randall’s kindergardeners create holiday cards, such as turkey handprints, for Meals on Wheels recipients; present new citizens with potted flowers at naturalization ceremonies; and create foam-and-bead necklaces for residents of assisted living facilities.
They also tackle opportunities to serve as they arise; when I visited this week, the hallway outside their classroom was lined with boxes nearly full of clothing donations destined for a homeless shelter in Camden, N.J., where WCA Alumnus Mike Morgan volunteers.
The message Randall gives her students is this: a service project can help anyone, anywhere and to do a selfless act, you can either collect something, make something or do something. And to older kids and adults, she says, “If kindergardeners can do it, you can do it.”
The outreach projects are:
- Pre-K: Adopted Coach Brown, the facilities manager, who they uplift with well wishes, prayers and tokens of appreciation throughout the year.
- Kindergarten: Make necklaces for residents of retirement homes; make cards for Meals on Wheels recipients; and “welcome” new citizens.
- 1st Grade: Adopted current sixth graders and encourage them with notes throughout the year as they adjust to middle school.
- 2nd-4th Grades: Adopted class of 2011 WCA graduates, keeping them uplifted with cards, notes, care packages and prayers. (Two alumni visited recently with bags of candy to say “Thank you” to the kids, Hardy told me.)
- 5th Grade: The fifth graders create a Wax Museum exhibit, each portraying a missionary; they come to life when visitors drop money at their stall. The monies go to mission work.
- Elementary School: The entire elementary school donates items for Grove Christian Outreach and collect items for the homeless shelter in N.J.
- 7th Grade: Volunteer at Dreamcatchers Therapeutic Riding Center four times a year.
- 8th Grade: Visit Grove Christian Outreach to work on food distribution once a month.
- 9th Grade: Students visit residents at Patriots Colony.
- 10th Grade: Students assist with the assembly of Rapid Deployment Kits at the Campus Crusade Military Ministries National Headquarters. They also, with the ninth-graders, complete stateside mission trips.
- 11th Grade: Work with Grove Christian Outreach.
- 12th Grade: Complete an overseas mission trip.
I unabashedly love this idea. I especially loved the emphasis on mentorship between the grades, and recognition of staff; at an early age, children will learn that just reaching out to others can do wonders for morale. I hope that in an era of declining budgets, more school administrators can find ways to encourage a similar culture of service in their schools.
Historic Triangle Reflections Winners
The Historic Triangle’s students excelled in this year’s Peninsula District PTA Reflections contest, with 14 area students winning first place in their respective categories. It takes guts to put your creative self out there for judgment, so I want to recognize all of our local winners, below:
Williamsburg-James City County Winners
- Casey Schmidt, Award of Excellence for Dance Choreography, Intermediate, DJ Montague
- Jasmin Piggott, Outstanding Interpretation for Dance Choreography, Primary, J Blaine Blayton
- Eliot Davis, Award of Excellence for Film Production, Middle, Lois S. Hornsby
- Anna Zhang, Award of Merit for Film Production, Intermediate, Clara Byrd Baker
- Rachael Wiers, Outstanding Interpretation for Literature, Middle, Lois S. Hornsby
- Caitlin Dila, Outstanding Interpretation for Literature, Intermediate, Clara Byrd Baker
- Emma Block, Award of Excellence for Literature, Primary, J Blaine Blayton
- Ciara Rosario, Outstanding Interpretation for Music Composition, Intermediate, Norge
- Benjamin Dorsett, Outstanding Interpretation for Music Composition, Primary, Matthew Whaley
- Emma Yeats, Outstanding Interpretation for Photography, Middle, Lois S. Hornsby
- India Eklind, Honorable Mention for Photography, Intermediate, J. Blaine Blayton
- Aiden Coleman, Honorable Mention for Photography, Primary, Matthew Whaley
- Leilani Romero, Award of Merit for Visual Arts, Senior, Lafayette
- Anthony White, Award of Merit for Visual Arts, Middle, Berkeley
- Sydney Crocetta, Outstanding Interpretation for Visual Arts, Intermediate, Stonehouse
- Emma Clauberg, Honorable Mention for Visual Arts, Primary, DJ Montague
York County Winners
- Christopher Spells, Outstanding Interpretation for Dance Choreography, Middle, Queens Lake
- Emma Myer, Outstanding Interpretation for Dance Choreography, Intermediate, Coventry
- Brooke Gorsica, Outstanding Interpretation for Film Production, Senior, York High
- Ariannah Kubli, Oustanding Interpretation for Film Production, Middle, Queens Lake
- Caroline Arnette, Honorable Mention for Film Production, Intermediate, Waller Mill
- Evan Roderick, Award of Merit for Literature, Senior, York High
- Steven Hume, Award of Merit for Literature, Middle, Yorktown
- Savannah DeLange, Award of Excellence for Literature, Intermediate, Tabb
- Elizabeth Leonard, Award of Merit for Literature, Primary, Tabb
- Geneva Poelker, Outstanding Interpretation for Music Composition, Senior, York
- Alexander Arnette, Outstanding Interpretation for Music Composition, Middle, Queens Lake
- Christopher Williams, Award of Merit for Music Composition, Intermediate, Coventry
- Sarah Williams, Award of Excellence for Photography, Senior, Grafton
- Elizabeth Bieri, Honorable Mention for Photography, Middle, Queens Lake
- Madeleine Roberts, Award of Excellence for Photography, Intermediate, Mount Vernon
- Brandon Turner, Outstanding Interpretation for Photography, Primary, Magruder
- April Cross, Outstanding Interpretation for Visual Arts, Senior, Bruton
- Eunice Namkoong, Award of Excellence for Visual Arts, Middle, Tabb
- Madeleine Roberts, Honorable Mention for Visual Arts, Intermediate, Mount Vernon
- Cassidy Hays, Award of Merit for Visual Arts, Primary, Grafton Bethel
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Education reporter Amber Lester looks beyond the budgets and test scores to see how students in the Historic Triangle are being shaped into lifelong learners. From student accomplishments to creative lesson plans, Amber keeps you up-to-date on education matters. Contact her at amber@wydaily.com.
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