Category: Service Learning

Categories
Community Service Learning Uncategorized

An Everyday Hero

By Victoria John
Middle School Teacher, Lakehill Preparatory School

Sometimes a hero is not only the mythic god of Mount Olympus nor a contemporary Jedi knight. Sometimes a hero is someone we see every day, someone we know. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, noted mythological scholar Joseph Campbell, describes heroes in myth as “practice models for understanding how to live…life principles embedded in the structure of stories.” Within these stories, he describes the qualities and passages of a hero through twelve stages called the hero’s journey. In Adam Bede, novelist George Eliot offers her concept of a hero, “It is more needful that my heart should swell with loving admiration at some trait of gentle goodness in the faulty people who sit at the same hearth with me…than at the deeds of heroes whom I shall never know.”

I am fortunate to know and teach such a hero, sixth grade Lakehill student Charlie Borowczak, who gifts children through the Salvation Army Angel Tree program with his Charlie’s Angels project. In December, as a guest on The Steve Harvey Show in Chicago, Charlie was featured in the Harvey’s Heroes segment.  Charlie shared that he became interested in supporting the Angel Tree program when he was in first grade. Since then, each November he goes to NorthPark Mall, chooses angels from the tree and purchases gifts for each child. Charlie funds these gifts by earning all the money himself through pet sitting, car washing or other odd jobs. Recently Charlie bought gifts for 30 angels, spending $100 on each. He says, “It makes him feel good to be Santa Claus for other children.”

When asked if he would describe himself as a hero, Charlie replies, “It makes me feel kind of smug to call myself a hero. I just think of myself as a normal person. I guess I would be a hero to the angels, because I give them a Christmas.”

This young entrepreneur is already planning for the future.  “I want to keep helping and inspiring others. I am working on expanding Charlie’s Angels and setting it up as a non-profit. I am spreading the word, and it is going fast.”

Talking with Charlie about his dedication to help children has touched me deeply and reminds me that he has heroic qualities. Charlie is a leader, loyal friend and respected by his peers. He is committed to helping others and genuinely cares about doing his part to make the world a better place. There is a gentle goodness in Charlie. He is someone we all know – he is our own Lakehill everyday hero. With his own words, “A hero needs a persevering spirit and the will to do good no matter what,” Charlie continues his path on the hero’s journey.

 

Charlie - 7 years oldCharlie in Chicago, Steve Harvey Show Charlie on Steve Harvey

Categories
Building Relationships Service Learning Uncategorized

Africa is NOT a Country

By Patty Pippen
Social Studies Teacher

Since 2010 we have been connected to a rural school in Namibia and now I’m sharing Africa with a new generation.

Africa is NOT a Country

It all started innocently enough. We planned to travel with extended family to a destination that we let our children choose. The choice? Namibia.  It turned out to be more than a vacation but a place we would return to and support through the years.  The first trip included aunts and nephews and cousins all intent on discovering a new place in the world. We went with the purpose to learn about animal conservation, rural school life, and of course, we wanted to see the wildlife. We did see lions, elephants, cheetahs, and zebras, but we also returned with a commitment to make a continued difference in a small way to the school we visited.

With enthusiasm, my son’s 6th grade class held a bracelet and rooibos tea sale in February 2011 to raise money for orphans and the poorer students’ school fees. Everyone at Lakehill, from teachers to senior students to kindergarteners, lined up in the cold mornings to drink free samples of rooibos tea (a Fair Trade, completely pure, caffeine-free, organic tea grown in Namibia) and buy a Himba bracelet (made from recycled PVC pipe).  Boxes of shirts and jackets were sent, along with the $1100 raised in the fundraiser, to the students in Namibia.

The following year, the 7th grade class sold handmade beaded bracelets and African art, including animal woodcarvings and soapstone sculptures. Packets of the popular tea were sold once again. That year, we were able to send even more money to support the orphans and any children who could not afford school fees and school supplies. Many letters of thanks were posted to the class and read during class meetings. Lakehill students got to see first hand the beauty of their kindness and caring for someone less fortunate.

In addition to raising money for the eleven orphans we committed to fund, we identified a need for classroom sets of books so that teachers could advance the reading comprehension skills of the students.  The school teaches all classes in English beginning in the primary school years so most students speak and read English.

Each year during the last week of school, Lakehill students donated their used paperback books that had been studied through the school year. My older son obtained and sent corresponding teacher guides and student study guide tools to the Namibian teachers for each collected book title. These could be used for student self-study or for the teachers to guide the students as they used the donated books.

Lakehill students learned that the children in Namibia led lives very similar to theirs, striving every day to be good citizens in their schools, homes, and community. Very positively, our students learned about the world in which we live.

Fast forward to 2014: My older son and I travelled to Rundu, Namibia to deliver books, clothing, and school supplies. We also donated funds for the orphans that had been supported for the past five years. The library was expanded and organized. Lakehill’s Parent Faculty Club (PFC) spirit shop, bookstore, generous families, and our school contributed a large amount of clothing and books. By the end of our stay, we were able to sort and distribute over 800 pieces of clothing, which was enough to give one or two items to every student in the entire school, 1st through 10th grades.

The Lakehill students who started all that giving years ago are now juniors in Upper School. I now teach full-time at Lakehill, and offer an Upper School elective: Africa is Not a Country, which guides students through current issues in Africa, from wildlife poaching to civil conflict, to the HIV epidemic, to expanding deserts. The years of our family’s and Lakehill’s commitment most tellingly paid off when we met with the eleven orphans who have been supported for these last years: all are still in school and are motivated to continue to perform well. They have lost their parents to war and AIDS and disease; yet, through the support that continued through the years, they kept coming to school and pursuing their academic journey.  One of the orphans was not present, not for a sad reason, but for a jubilant one: she had so excelled academically that she was chosen to go to a government upper school for the most gifted students in the country where she is receiving an all-expense-paid higher education.  The principal and administration are proud to have such a distinguished student and told us it could not have happened without our funds that supported her.

Categories
Service Learning

Reaching Beyond Borders

By Jack Pippen, Class of 2015

This summer I was fortunate to spend nearly a month traveling across southern Africa in order to distribute donations made by Lakehill families and teach in a small Namibian school. I spent a week in a small community that my family and I have worked with in rural Namibia where few households have running water, electricity, steady incomes, or access to healthcare. The school teaches in English and has a promising student population.

Our purpose was to give the students the tools they need to succeed. I spent six hours a day teaching English, language, and vocabulary skills to students my age, using the books and curriculum used at Lakehill. I felt a real bond with these students because I was teaching them material that I had once been taught.

When I wasn’t teaching, I helped to organize and distribute our donations: 21 large boxes of donated books and clothes waiting that we had shipped before our trip. We had enough books for many class sets, as well as significantly increasing the collection of the library that we started a few years ago. We also realized that we had enough clothes for each student in the school to get at least one shirt or jacket. We went from classroom to classroom to distribute every piece of clothing. For many of the school children, this was only their third or fourth shirt or their only jacket. I stayed after school to watch the sports day events. The girls played netball (a sport like basketball) and the boys played soccer against other schools. Both teams were wearing donated Lakehill clothes as their uniforms. The boys had made soccer uniforms out of old yellow Trek For Tech shirts and blue PE shorts.

I am so grateful to everyone in the Lakehill community who donated to this cause.

Jack Pippen helps get books and uniforms for African school.
Jack Pippen helps get books and uniforms for African school.

 

 

 

Categories
Service Learning

Seasonal Magic

By Kaye Hauschild
Middle School Coordinator, Lakehill Preparatory School

December has different faces for different people, but for me it is the pinnacle of a year of giving. It is the time when almost everyone you meet is open to giving to the bell ringer or the angel hanging from a tree or the canned food collector. Seasonal magic casts its spell over a wide array of generous people.

Of course, I am a very lucky person because I get to observe the giving magic throughout the year. Consider our Middle School students and their generosity throughout this first semester of the year. Our sixth grade has taken responsibility for delivering Meals on Wheels to about seventeen elderly or infirm residents of a nearby apartment building. It requires working ahead or making up time missed from class, but every student group returned from their deliveries excited about the opportunity to help these “nice people” and ready to go to again.

Our seventh grade stepped up as volunteers on Veteran’s Day for the residents of C.C. Young. Our Boy Scouts raised the flag and our Girl Scouts led the pledge, while everyone else helped to move the residents in wheelchairs from their home floor to the flag pole. More importantly, all of our students took time to listen when the seniors shared their memories and thoughts. It was a powerful experience for everyone.

Our Community Connections group has assisted at an area carnival, kept books ready for our Little Free Libraries, made dog toys for an animal shelter, and assisted with school wide drives like the UNICEF collection.

The seventh and eighth grade came together to create an event that was fun and a fundraiser. Their powder puff football game had all of the elements of a big rivalry plus money making concessions. In the end, their teamwork raised $750 for the Genesis Women’s Shelter. What an accomplishment!

Sometimes we wonder what we can accomplish as an entire group. Our Student Council led the entire Middle School to complete two service opportunities in one twenty-minute time period. Student Council wanted to do a project that would benefit the homeless or members of the military during the holiday season. After some research, they voted to do something for each group; they would make trail mix bags for the Soupmobile to deliver to the homeless and create handmade holiday cards to be dispersed to service men and women by the American Red Cross. In 20 minutes, Middle School students mixed and bagged approximately 175 bags of trail mix and created 200 holiday cards.

It makes me happy to know that the giving magic is with our students throughout the year.

 

Categories
Service Learning

Hope in Good Hearts

By Jennifer Warder
Upper School Mathematics Teacher, Lakehill Preparatory School
Freshman Class Sponsor

As adults, we often wonder what the future holds when the young people of today will become our leaders. Sometimes what we witness here and now can cause us to be doubtful and even fearful. Thankfully, at Lakehill we have solid, reliable young people in every class who give us hope. Rarely, however, do you find an entire class with hearts like our current Freshman class.

Although we started this year with no one wanting to take a leadership role in the Freshman class, we have since been blessed with four good officers who work well together and a class of students all willing to do their part. During our first class project as part of Lakehill’s annual Holiday Luncheon, every member of the class played an important role in the weeks leading up to the Luncheon and on the day of the actual event.  In addition to our amazing officers, we had other students who stepped up and took on leadership roles. There were also the “thinkers,” who proactively thought out every possible stumbling block we could encounter and took action to prevent issues. On the day of the event, we had the “doers,” who kept the elderly supplied with water and coffee, wrapped silverware for the luncheon, and ran to get help when we encountered issues. Those comfortable with strangers sat and spoke with the elderly, holding their hands, and showing compassion well beyond their years. All were positive; all played to their strengths.  All made their class sponsors incredibly proud.

Freshmen are typically (and understandably) the most immature of the Upper School classes. However, this group has a maturity of spirit that is rare, in addition to positive attitudes that accompany a wit and sense of fun that I cherish.

They have themselves shared with me that they are not the most academic-minded of students.  But, they have a heart for people and a sense of empathy that I find rare for their age.  As teachers, we can work with them on the academic front.  But, we cannot coach them into having a heart for others.  I see a promise in all of our futures because of the incredible hearts of our Freshmen.

 

Categories
Service Learning

Service with a Smile

By Kaye Hauschild
Middle School Coordinator, Lakehill Preparatory School 

It all began with a broken leg.  One of my sixth grade students broke her leg right before the beginning of the school year and, after surgery, found out that she could not participate in PE for many weeks to come.  Faced with the prospect of sitting idly on the bleachers, her parents asked me if I could give her the alternative of community service during her PE time each day.  I readily agreed because there are always projects that need an extra hand.

And so it began. During the first few weeks of school, there were more injured students who came to our alternative activity.  Because of broken and badly sprained wrists, knees, and ankles, our group’s number changed, but the purpose did not.  Over the next ten weeks, these students met together at the end of each school day to give an hour of their time to someone else who needed them.

They provided service to our school by creating bulletin boards, posters advertising upcoming events, and locker decorations, as well as helping our teachers and librarian with special projects and routine tasks.  They worked together on service projects for those outside of our school by organizing the materials needed for a “pet rock” project that the entire middle school participated in, making ornaments to send to families living in Interfaith Housing facilities, making samples for various Community Connections projects, encouraging coat collection for Coats for Kids, and conceptualizing and putting the pieces together for the Middle School wreaths for Children’s Medical Center.

Every day was filled with cheerful effort dedicated to our school and to our community.  I am happy to say that all of my wounded Warriors are back on their feet, so our afternoons together have come to an end.  To all of these wonderful volunteers, thank you!  I hope you know that you made a difference.

Categories
Service Learning

It’s a Wonderful Life, Lakehill

By Victoria John
Middle School Latin Teacher, Lakehill Preparatory School 

Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” There are children in Africa whose lives are forever changed because of Lakehill students. Charlie Pippen’s desire to help the African students at the Kayengona School in Namibia has altered their future. It touches the same chord as Frank Kapra’s heart-felt classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which tells how one man’s far-reaching impact on a community forever changed the future of each individual whose life he touched.

In 2009 the present 7th grade class sent 11 boxes of school supplies and easy readers to Africa. In addition, Charlie and a classmate asked that in lieu of birthday gifts friends give money for the children in this village. When Charlie and his mother, Patti Pippen, visited the children in the Kayengona School in the summer, 2010, they distributed the supplies and $1100 from Lakehill fundraisers.

At a recent homeroom meeting Mrs. Pippen read excerpts from thank-you letters written by the children. “We are really, really appreciative for what you give. We remember the year you came here and visited and played with us. It was a surprise. We didn’t think that you were going to give us something that we did not see in our lives.”

Another student expressed his appreciation with a poem:

Learn when others are playing,
Prepare when others are laughing,
Dream when others are still working.

Following the trip to Africa, Charlie was so moved by the students’ plight in the school that he wanted to continue to make a difference. Last spring, the 6th grade class sold bracelets and native teas made by the Namibian tribes and wired $1200 to the school for uniforms, school fees, and testing fees for orphans and students who could not afford to attend school. In addition, the Parent Faculty Club collected and donated Lakehill t-shirts, sweatshirts, and other clothing and sent 15 boxes to the school.

For these gifts an appreciative Namibian student wrote, “I am fifteen years old. I live in a poor family but now you help me pay school fees and buy for me my school uniform.” Another said, “I am an orphan and I am very, very appreciative that you gave us the money and clothes.”

Hearing such gratefulness in the thank-you letters touched the 7th grade Lakehill students. Olivia Wagner comments, “When Mrs. Pippen read us those letters, I felt incredibly proud. It is so amazing to know that you, a 7th grader, could change someone’s life and make them smile out of kindness and caring. They were so thankful. It made me want to help out others who are less fortunate than I and smile in the same way the students in Namibia did!”

“If it makes other people happy, then I’m happy,” says Claire Crow.

Tillie McCoskey writes, “It is so, so, so super important that all children get what books and clothes they need for school and for everyday life.”

The story continues. In February, the 7th grade class plans to continue their support of the African children by selling bracelets, hand-carved wooden animals, gemstones, pendants, and tea. They also will collect gently-used soccer clothing and equipment, as the Kayengona School wants to start a soccer team.

About this project Charlie Pippen writes, “It made me feel good because I know I’m impacting greatly on many children’s lives.” A determined student feels Charlie’s impact. “When I grow up I want to be a doctor because I want to help people who get sick. I give thanks to you. We will not fail you.”

He has even influenced them to follow his example. “When I finish my school I want to help someone else and my parents. I am so very happy to see you buying these gifts.” This letter is signed, “Your friend, Sitekota Egidius.”

The message revealed at the end of the holiday film is that friendship is the most valuable gift of all. Lakehill’s 7th grade class has many new friends in the Kayengona School.

“It’s a Wonderful Life, Lakehill.”

Categories
Service Learning

Serving Others

By Kaye Hauschild
Middle School Coordinator 

On Wednesday of last week, we had the first meeting of this year’s Community Connections club. The club is made up of Middle School students who want to spend their spare time doing projects that serve needs in our school and in our community. It is my pleasure to get to work with Gigi Ekstrom on planning and executing our efforts. She will lead a group of Lower School students who also want to help others. We have an ambitious plan for our fall semester, filled with opportunities to reach out to a variety of groups, including a small neighborhood food bank, an assisted living community for senior citizens, a preschool and an elementary school, an organization that supports families in need of a new beginning, and our own efforts at White Rock Lake.

As we began planning for this school year’s efforts, I could not help but remember the many projects that I have been honored to participate in throughout my years at Lakehill. As a new member of Lakehill’s faculty, I assisted Evan Higgon, English teacher, Senior Class sponsor, and unofficial service guru, at the East Dallas Senior Citizens organization. We held annual canned food drives that supported the group’s monthly deliveries to area senior citizens in need. We also helped some of those seniors with home and yard care. We included their membership in our invitations to our annual Holiday Luncheon. When the organization lost their grant money and closed their doors, we created our own food bank and continued the monthly food deliveries that the seniors had come to rely on. Over time, we were able to find agencies to assist the remaining membership and our impromptu food bank shut its doors, but the memories, the sense of accomplishment, and the true joy of making a difference are still alive in my heart as I suspect they are in others who gave their time and energy to this project.

So I take extra pleasure and pride in sharing in the continuation of this worthy tradition. Service is the focus of Community Connections, but it is also one of the top priorities of our class organizations and clubs like Sisteens and Pan American Student Forum. It is not a requirement for anyone, but sharing our time, talents, and energy with others lives on as a memorable and impactful part of the Warrior experience.