Students Helping Students: New Foundations kids pack bags bound for New Orleans
September 22, 2005
Northeast News Gleaner September 21, 2005
New Foundations Charter School student Jill Farina got to bring her stuffed animals to school last Wednesday. She put them in a school bag and prepared them for a journey, not back to the wild, but down to New Orleans.
The second-grader was one of hundreds of students who donated toys and school supplies to students affected by Hurricane Katrina.
As part of their annual Unity Day Project, the students brought in notebooks, pencils, crayons, rulers and other supplies to pack in 50 book bags and ship to students in New Orleans. Every class also designed their perfect planet, a place with their favorite characters, activities and foods where nothing bad happens.
Every year, students work on a project related to current events. Last year, they did a project about the Olympics.
Eighth-grader Michael Claupien helped make the "Toon" planet. "We picked different cartoons to be rulers," he said. Sponge Bob was their president.
The classes paraded around the auditorium with round, decorated signs showing the things in their planets.
"We get to enjoy what we created," Claupien said. "It's a way for everyone to get together for one noble cause."
Fifth-grader Rebecca Blaich proudly held her class's "Super Planet" sign, adorned with red glitter and drawings of super-heroes. She also had a bag with construction paper, boxes of crayons and pencil cases for the Katrina victims.
"They did a good job," said fifth-grader Marco LaRocca of the other classes' planets. His class made the "Joyful Planet," which was decorated with pictures of candy, pizza and sports equipment.
New Foundations is one of nine schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that receives a Youth Organized for Disaster Action (Y.O.D.A.) grant from the Institute for Global Education & Service Learning. Y.O.D.A. is a service-learning program that lets students prepare their communities for unexpected emergencies and natural disasters.
New Foundations students participated in the program as an elective under the instruction of Shira Woolf-Cohen, director of service learning and the community care center at the school. The students made emergency kits and worked on other community projects.
Joan Liptrot from the institute presented a check for $26,000 to New Foundations, which they will use to further implement the Y.O.D.A. program for a second year. She said projects like the emergency kits incorporate all subjects; students use math to create a budget, science to study natural disasters and language arts to write letters asking for item donations.
"These teachers have done a fabulous job with that," said Liptrot. "The kids really have this sense of caring. They didn't wait for the teachers to tell them to do this."
"It's absolutely great," said Principal Paul Stadelberger. "It's amazing how the kids have responded. It's just what we do here."
Stadelberger told the students he was proud of their hard work. "I'm very, very excited for what you've done today," he said. "It's tremendous what you're doing to help people affected by the hurricane. It's just the first part of what we're going to do to help all those people."
At the end of the presentation, students began walking up to the stage to put their toys and school supplies in the book bags. The items will be shipped to Texas and distributed to students from the Gulf Coast.
For more information on New Foundations, contact the school at 215-624-8100.
« Return to the Listing of Articles
September 22, 2005
Northeast News Gleaner September 21, 2005
New Foundations Charter School student Jill Farina got to bring her stuffed animals to school last Wednesday. She put them in a school bag and prepared them for a journey, not back to the wild, but down to New Orleans.
The second-grader was one of hundreds of students who donated toys and school supplies to students affected by Hurricane Katrina.
As part of their annual Unity Day Project, the students brought in notebooks, pencils, crayons, rulers and other supplies to pack in 50 book bags and ship to students in New Orleans. Every class also designed their perfect planet, a place with their favorite characters, activities and foods where nothing bad happens.
Every year, students work on a project related to current events. Last year, they did a project about the Olympics.
Eighth-grader Michael Claupien helped make the "Toon" planet. "We picked different cartoons to be rulers," he said. Sponge Bob was their president.
The classes paraded around the auditorium with round, decorated signs showing the things in their planets.
"We get to enjoy what we created," Claupien said. "It's a way for everyone to get together for one noble cause."
Fifth-grader Rebecca Blaich proudly held her class's "Super Planet" sign, adorned with red glitter and drawings of super-heroes. She also had a bag with construction paper, boxes of crayons and pencil cases for the Katrina victims.
"They did a good job," said fifth-grader Marco LaRocca of the other classes' planets. His class made the "Joyful Planet," which was decorated with pictures of candy, pizza and sports equipment.
New Foundations is one of nine schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that receives a Youth Organized for Disaster Action (Y.O.D.A.) grant from the Institute for Global Education & Service Learning. Y.O.D.A. is a service-learning program that lets students prepare their communities for unexpected emergencies and natural disasters.
New Foundations students participated in the program as an elective under the instruction of Shira Woolf-Cohen, director of service learning and the community care center at the school. The students made emergency kits and worked on other community projects.
Joan Liptrot from the institute presented a check for $26,000 to New Foundations, which they will use to further implement the Y.O.D.A. program for a second year. She said projects like the emergency kits incorporate all subjects; students use math to create a budget, science to study natural disasters and language arts to write letters asking for item donations.
"These teachers have done a fabulous job with that," said Liptrot. "The kids really have this sense of caring. They didn't wait for the teachers to tell them to do this."
"It's absolutely great," said Principal Paul Stadelberger. "It's amazing how the kids have responded. It's just what we do here."
Stadelberger told the students he was proud of their hard work. "I'm very, very excited for what you've done today," he said. "It's tremendous what you're doing to help people affected by the hurricane. It's just the first part of what we're going to do to help all those people."
At the end of the presentation, students began walking up to the stage to put their toys and school supplies in the book bags. The items will be shipped to Texas and distributed to students from the Gulf Coast.
For more information on New Foundations, contact the school at 215-624-8100.
« Return to the Listing of Articles
info@nfcsonline.orgWeb Site Design by Singularity Design