Main Sections

MUMS Students Exceed Charitable Goal

photo by provided Front Row: Kylee Ellis, Harper Sinclair, and Evan Gregory. Middle Row: Clare Molineaux, Zora Duquette-Hoffman, Bailey Farrell, Kaitlyn McNamara, Julia Bartlett, WOKO’s Sarah Spencer, and Isaac Norris Back Row: Alexia Gratton, Asher Stokes, Cam Castelli, Avery Gale, Sam Bushee, Alex Field and Matt Fitzsimmons.

photo by provided Front Row: Alexia Gratton, Kylee Ellis, Bailey Farrell, Isaac Norris, and Avery Gale Back Row: Clare Molineaux, Zora Duquette-Hoffman, Asher Stokes, Cam Castelli, Matt Fitzsimmons, Alex Field, Evan Gregor, Kaitlyn McNamara, Sam Bushee, Julia Bartlett, and Harper Sinclair.

Tuesday March 7, 2017

By Cookie Steponaitis

When the students of Middlebury Union Middle School take on a cause they set their goals high. Two teacher advisories, the Quinn TA grade 7 and the Santa Maria/Gero grade 8 have collaborated for the past two years in leading a school wide charitable fundraising effort. The groups selected the Big Change Roundup charity because so many friends and families have benefitted from the excellent care provided by the University of Vermont’s Children’s Hospital and 100% of the funds raised goes to providing direct services to the local children who receive life-saving care and supporting the patients’ families. Last year some MUMS students visited the hospital and learned first-hand how the funds address the needs of sick children.
    In addition to providing a real-life example of how youth can implement change in a community, the roles, leadership skills and activities provide a varied set of opportunities for the students. “They can develop and demonstrate empathy, build leadership skills and come together as a school community for an important cause, all while engaging our larger community,” explained 8th grade teacher Martha Santa Maria. “Students analyzed data to determine the dollar amount for the goal. To promote awareness they decorated the lobby with props and the cowboy hats. The TA’s organized, staffed and maintained a western -themed photo booth for the next three weeks, as well as led the ‘Red Wrist Band’ and ‘Bandit Bandana Days’ where student wore fun items found in their bandit bags that were provided by the Big Change Roundup sponsors like Maplefields and WOKO.” Whether the students were setting up for basketball tournament concessions or writing letters to Hannaford’s Grocery and the MUMS Student Council to help with purchasing supplies, students took the lead. They also publicized on Facebook, morning announcements and kept the school informed on the importance of quality of care while working toward achieving their $1500.00 goal.
    “Students became informed about the children and the families accessing the hospital as well as what the money donated will provide,” shared MUMS mathematics teacher Pam Quinn. “They learned collaboration skills in the planning process and followed an idea from fruition to conclusion. They shared responsibilities and in some cases pushed outside their comfort zones to speak publicly or interact with students they did not know well. Our MUMS theme is PRIDE- Positive Attitude, Respect, Integrity, Dynamic Behavior and Empathy and these students certainly demonstrated these aspects of PRIDE through this service project.” Using the campaign’s official slogan, ‘Making a Difference One Dime at a Time’ the students asked their peers to look under couch cushions for change and continued to reinforce the message that every dime and dollar was important and many different students were incredulous that their efforts multiplied to such an extent.
    The groups began running the project on January 10th when students met with WOKO’s Sarah Spencer to coordinate the school campaign, set the goal and to do an on the air promotion and worked diligently until February 17th.  When the final total of $2,826.79 came in and the group had gone past the original $1500.00 goal there was a great deal of excitement and realization of how committed public efforts can make change. “We are so proud of the students and they did an amazing job to go above and beyond the initial goal set for the Big Change Roundup,” concluded Anna-Mae Gero, MUMS Custodian. The lesson learned through participation as an active and inform

Printer Friendly

Top

Advertisements

Search our Archives