Seasonal fundraisers provide consistent support and teach students about local and global citizenship.
At Oak Park Elementary School in Lansdale, PA, students and staff are discovering creative ways to care for their own community while building connections with people thousands of miles away. Brett Baker, 6th grade teacher, explains that Oak Park students and staff have always been responsive to meeting the needs of others. “Our school family is community minded,” he says. “Whether the needs are in our own backyard or far away, we rally around the cause.” He notes that Oak Park families have supported local food banks, adopted a school ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, and provided resources for residents of Haiti.
“Bridging the Parks” represents the school’s latest effort to act locally and reach globally by building a bridge between Oak Park Elementary and Ivory Park, South Africa. In October, Bob Tryanski – founder of the Keep It! Campaign – traveled to Oak Park and acquainted students with the challenges facing Ivory Park residents. He explained that donations from Oak Park will help to support the feeding program at the Sedimosang Day Care Center and will also provide books for the new library. A $200 check presented by students at the orientation assembly will pay for meals for 20 Ivory Park children for an entire month.
Baker explains that throughout the school year, students and staff will be participating in the “Bridging the Parks” campaign through a variety of simple, fun, and profitable initiatives. As the campaign catalysts, sixth graders will be driving the fund raisers and learning important service lessons in the process. The monies raised will be shared by the Oak Park and Ivory Park communities throughout the coming year.
October: “You are Gourd-geous Fundraiser to Squash Out Poverty”
In this fundraiser geared toward the autumn season, Baker mobilized his sixth graders to take orders for colorful gourds. For $1, students could order a gourd and request that it be delivered to a fellow student or staff member along with a note reminding the recipient that he or she is “gourd-geous”. In this three day sale, dedicated students sold more than 500 gourds.
November: “Friendship Grams”
This fundraiser allows students to celebrate Thanksgiving by showing thanks for special friends and staff members. For just 25 cents, students can purchase a friendship gram – a small note of gratitude adorned with a piece of candy.
December: “Spirit of Giving”
In an important life lesson about generosity, the Oak Park staff will embrace the spirit of the season by asking for donations in lieu of more traditional holiday gifts from their students. The gifts received will be used to support children in the local community and in Ivory Park.
February: “You Rock”
Students and staff will be able to purchase a polished pet rock in a box – a keepsake designed to let that special Valentine know that he or she is not taken for “granite”.
Through creative, seasonal fundraisers, Oak Park Elementary School is providing consistent opportunities for students to affirm friendships and to become good citizens in their own community and across the globe, in Ivory Park.