Recently, Beechwood High School’s National Honor Society adopted the fifth grade at Ninth District Elementary in Covington, KY. The young students were blessed by the kindness of the high schools students. Their thoughtfulness inspired the 5^th grade students to do something kind in return; the only trouble was choosing how they wanted to pay it forward. "Instead of us trying to pay back Beechwood with something physical, why don't we take the joy that they've shown us and the kindness and the thoughtfulness and pass that on to somebody else," teacher Maria Teepe said.

 

After hearing Taft Elementary had to cancel field trips because students had no socks and it was too cold for them to go without them, the students at Ninth District were filled with concern. This is a very personal and relatable problem for the students at Ninth District. After much discussion the students elected to collaborate with 5/3 Bank and organize a “Sock Stock”. The children would donate the socks to the students at Taft Elementary.

 

The students made announcements at school and invited their classmates to participate in a competition to see who could bring in the most socks. After only two weeks of collection, the students of Ninth District and 5/3 Bank were able to donate over 1,400 pairs of socks. Students were honored and empowered by the opportunity to give back to others.

 

Every 2^nd grader at Taft Elementary was able to pick several pairs. "It warms your heart as a teacher, because you do so much and your kids are so important to you as a teacher and you want the world for them," Taft teacher Hope Dunham said.

 

The students at Taft will also pay forward the good deed by donating the extra socks.

 

Congratulations to Ninth District on a wonderful project and job well done!

Covington Independent Schools’, TLC, sponsors a variety of programs for its students. One such program is Girls United as One.  The group made up by girls for girls, focuses on issues that impact young women growing up in today’s society.  They meet weekly to discuss things like health and wellness, self-advocacy, fitness, school, and service learning. 

 

With a grant from the Greater Cincinnati Foundation they are creating a curriculum that will be put together as a “toolbox” for use by other schools and organizations.  The curriculum supports service learning by allowing the girls to give back to the community through different programs. The giving back helps the girls to recognize their own skills and talents; building self-awareness and esteem.  As part of a school-wide initiative to support the troops the girls facilitated a collection drive for items that were donated to the Yellow Ribbon Support Center. They have visited several Covington Elementary schools, presenting bully prevention programs. 

 

You can see more of what Girls Untied as One is doing at the National Youth Service Summit, April 2. 

 

Florence Elementary students and staff participated in the 3rd grade Service Learning Project entitled “Community Conservation”. The entire school became involved. We were focusing on how we can make a difference by changing our daily routine to take better care of our planet’s natural resources. Outside our own little world, every 21 seconds a child dies from diseases caused by drinking contaminated drinking water!

The third grade classes each took a different approach to bring awareness to our school community, our local community, and our global communities for the need to conserve water and provide clean water. One class made tee shirts with a large water drop on the front and a water fact on the back. Another class created water fact magnets for a second grade class; when they presented the magnets to the students, they read conservation books and brainstormed ways to conserve water. During computer lab a third grade class made an acrostic poem using the word CONSERVE and wrote a water fact for each letter. Water conservation posters made by another third grade class were hung throughout the building and local library. The last class wrote letters to community leaders inviting them to read books to different classes about ecology and conservation.

The major part of the event was allowing students and staff to be dress code free for a day and wear their favorite pajamas. Everyone who donated a dollar or brought a sealed bottle of water was able to join the fun in comfort during our celebration movie.

We were honored to have a variety of representatives from the community who were willing to read. The following is a list of participants in order going around the collage: Mayor- Diane Whalen, Public Librarian- Donna Ammerman, NCLB Supervisor- Anna Marie Tracy, City Coordinator Rick Lunnemann, Asst. Director of Spec. Education- Mike Reichert, Chief Operating Officer- Mike Blevins, Florence Police Officer- Capt. Linny Cloyd, Director of Pupil Personnel- Mike Ford, Key Bank Manager- Pete Wiseman, and Boone County Schools Superintendent- Randy Poe. Several readers donated water or money for the project, demonstrating to the students that the community supports our endeavors.

While visiting Florence Elementary, Mayor Diane Whalen encouraged community involvement for all ages because we are all responsible for keeping our community clean.
Students and parents can practice reduce (water usage), reuse (paper and plastic shopping bags) recycle (newspaper, glass, plastic, cans). Mrs. Ammerman, librarian, reinforced this concept with a demonstration about Fred the Fish who swims in our waterways. Fred started life in clean, clear water but over time his environment became contaminated with soil, fertilizers, oil, garbage, and chemicals from waste dumps, and broken sewage pipes making it hard for Fred to breathe.

The third grade student body decided to support a local charity called The Henry Hosea House, a soup kitchen located in Newport, KY. Mrs. Karen Yates the Executive Director visited our school to share how the Henry Hosea House is “serving those in need”. The charity helps provide necessities for the homeless and needy of all ages. The soup kitchen provides approximately 150 hot, nutritious, evening meals each day. When the students realized that homeless people do not have a way to get clean water (water that we take for granted) they decided to have fellow students collect a mountain of water bottles. They collected 668 bottles of donated water which were distributed to the people who visit the soup kitchen.

We also joined with Lifewater International for our global outreach. They build water wells, handle system maintenance, and provide educational programs for countries in desperate need of clean drinking water. The third grade project collected $510.00 to help purchase water pumps that will allow villagers access to clean water. This will enable families to work or go to school instead of spending hours collecting water (an amount that we waste daily by brushing our teeth). Florence Elementary is making a difference one drop at a time.