Giving A Part Of North Central Students’ Spirit
Students at North Central High School like to give.
They give food, clothes, toys, time and even blood.
“This school has such a huge spirit of giving,” leadership teacher Len Long said. “Giving just seems to be part of this school.”
Recently the Chase Youth Commission awarded North Central its “Spirit of Jim Chase Award” for its giving this school year.
Long’s leadership class is behind NC’s latest food and clothing drive. The results: a mound of food and clothes measuring 15 feet by 15 feet that fills the school’s atrium. Long’s class inspired the whole student body to participate.
Students spent two weeks collecting the goods from their own homes and their neighbors, student Nancy Wear said.
By this week stacks of Cheerios, Campbells Soup and Top Ramen lurched upward, towers of toiletries leaned on pillars and garbage bags filled with second hand clothes were piled almost to the ceiling.
The drive is just the latest. Earlier this school year North Central students:
Gave 174 pints of blood to the Spokane Blood Bank’s annual drive.
Collected enough money to buy 61 $50 gift certificates for families in need.
Raised $1,000 to help cover medical expenses and buy a headstone when a sophomore student died in a car accident in February.
Did more than 9,000 hours of volunteer work.
“It was important to the kids that individually they possessed gifts,” teacher Dan Gordon said. “We gave them an opportunity to give their time and their talents to the someone.”
The volunteer work began as part of the school’s Groovy Shoes competition with Shadle Park High School.
“Other schools could do this,” Gordon said. “What sets us apart is that we value it highly. We have an organized school event that recognizes giving and volunteering. We make it important to students.”
Hours were spent with organizations like the Martin Luther King Center, The West Central community Center, area COPS stations, The Spokane Food Bank and Hospice. Others kids just worked around their neighborhood shoveling snow, taking shut-ins shopping and helping out.
“We had to educate the kids that they had something to give,” Gordon said. “We had to appreciate them for what they were doing.”
“The idea that time is the hardest thing to give yet there are so many people who need and there are so many gifts we have to offer.”
Relief efforts
Midway Elementary students raised $721.03 for the Oklahoma City relief fund.
The staff and students dug into their piggy banks and pockets and sent the money, secretary Diane Flaming said. Through the end of school the students are collecting and recycling cans and giving the proceeds to the Oklahoma fund.
Meadow Ridge Elementary students raised $1,515 for Oklahoma City relief. The students asked their families to contribute.
Learning adventures
The Mead School District is preparing for the Mead Summer Adventures, a series of enrichment courses offered to elementary and junior high school students in June and July.
The four-day courses are Adventures in Math, Adventures in Art, Adventure in Spanish and Adventures in Nature. Students must enroll by May 19. The cost is $70 per week.
Contact Karen Byron at the district office, 466-3015, for more information. The adventures promise to be strictly hands-on, no books and no tests.
Drama on the high sea
North Central High School’s drama department is presenting “Once On This Island” tonight, Friday and Saturday.
The play was originally produced on Broadway. This is the first time its been done in the Pacific Northwest, drama teacher Tom Armitage said.
The play is about Ti Mourne, a woman on a Carribean island who is destined to love too much for the human heart to bear, he said.
MEMO: Education Notebook is a regular feature of the North Side Voice. If you have news about an interesting program or activity at a North Side school or about the achievements of North Side students, teachers or school staff, please let us know. Write: Education Notebook, North Side Voice, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call: 459-5533. Fax: 459-5482.