Our Turn: Northwoods Community Secondary School students give back to community
Have you ever given back to your community? We do out at Northwoods Community Elementary School (NCES), a K-5 elementary project-based charter school in the School District of Rhinelander.
We do many hands-on and in-depth activities, and this year, we decided to combine business ideas with hands-on learning with a Youth Marketplace project. The third, fourth, and fifth-grade students all participated in this learning experience, which required writing a business plan, presenting a proposal to a bank loan officer, creating and building a product, and then selling the product to the community.Our school made items all revolving around an Earth Day theme, as we hosted our marketplace during Earth Week in April.
Our 5th grade class sold items from stepping-stones to compost bins to burned-wood jewelry and made a profit of over $400, even after paying back the bank $50 for our initial loan amounts.
As a class, we sat and decided what we were going to do with our profit. We decided to donate approximately 25 percent of our profit to local causes. After a class secret ballot, we decided on three places to share our money: Rhinelander Animal Shelter, Northwoods Alliance of Temporary Housing (NATH) and James Beck Cancer Center at Ministry Medical Center.
On three different occasions, group of three students took after-school field trips to each of these locales to deliver the donations. They were also able to see how our donation will be put to better use for people who need it more than us kids. We received many letters, thanking us for our generosity, so we know how much they appreciate our help.
We hope you follow our lead, and donate yourself and give back to the greater Rhinelander community.
Leave a reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.