|
|
|
Community Schoolhouse students help families in need
The school's 90 students "adopted" two families through the Salvation Army's Adopt-A-Family holiday assistance program. A Holiday Giving Tree was set up at the school with gift ideas (for the adopted families) listed on ornament tags. Students selected individual tags and purchased the gift items. Other students contributed cash donations for food purchases. Overall, more than 60 new gifts and $400 in food items were distributed to the two families on Dec. 19th. "I'm so impressed with how our students responded to this opportunity to reach out to those in need," said Tom DeJardin, executive director of The Community Schoolhouse. "Our student 'community' saw this as a personal way of brightening the holiday season for those less-fortunate in the Salem-Keizer local community.
Other holiday service learning projects for Community Schoolhouse students included visits to local retirement centers and volunteer work at Mission Mill's "Miracle of Lights" program. "The downtown location of our school is based on the philosophy that the community should serve as a classroom, and that includes the area of service learning," said DeJardin. "These types of student activities, which are ongoing, foster citizenship skills and a sense of civic pride and responsibility." |
|
contact: school@communityschoolhouse.org |
The
21st Century
Students
of The Community Schoolhouse participated in two service learning
projects to assist local families in need this holiday season.
Additionally, The Community
Schoolhouse students organized a month-long food drive for the Marion Polk Food
Share. Food donation boxes were set up at the school and at local
businesses. Students collected more than 300 pounds of food, which was
delivered to the Food Share in early December.