Mrs. Found is a high school Calculus teacher who said, "You may forget learning the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus but you will never forget how you made someone feel by lending a helping hand and they will never forget how you made them feel."
Over 80 9-12th grade students participated in two different projects during the 2017-18 school year. Students learned from the Learning to Give lessons Volunteering in the Community and Doodle Stones.
The first project was all about Giving Back. Students wrapped holiday presents for those the school system identified as in need, then they participated in Special Olympics fundraising by hosting a dance, entertained kids at a local daycare center and volunteered with a nonprofit outreach program to hand package enough meals to feed 10,000 people! The second project centered around the Doodle Stones lesson. Students worked together to create meaningful words, phrases or pictures to put on stones which were then placed all over the downtown area. The idea was to bring a smile and hopeful affect to others who saw the stones. "And it happened!" said Mrs. Found.
One student said, “Community Service is a good way to teach young adults to give back to the community they should be grateful for. People don’t always realize the hard work that others do for them, often not rewarded. Paying it forward by doing community service is a way to connect with our community.” Another reflected, “Sometimes it's very hard to engage in SEL classes because they are required and you don't have much choice but to be in them but I feel differently about the service class. It was really nice to take a break form worrying about every day school stresses and think about someone else and how my actions could effect them. I really liked doing the rock [doodle stones] activity too. One takeaway I have from class is that service goes a long way in life. Being kind and giving back is much easier than being hateful and that's something I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”
Because of the students' hard work, and Mrs. Found's support, the school recently created a Director of Community Service position. The goal of this position is to involve students with service activities on a weekly basis!
The Learning to Give mini-grant helped Mrs. Found's students experience positive interactions within the community. "Service to others is very powerful and has clearly made a mark on my students!"