Teaching Students to Give Back
Graham Daugherty • June 21, 2017
By Roni Miller, P.E. Teacher at Sunset Park Elementary in Pueblo, Colorado
Each fall Sunset Park Elementary decides on a Community Outreach Fundraiser for our students to participate in during the spring. This fall, we decided to support children’s diabetes due to the fact that we currently have three students living with diabetes in our building.
For our fundraiser, we decided to sell clay sculptures that the students made in art class. With the help of our Art Teacher, we put together “Peace, Love, and Art.” Each student made some type of sculpture that included smiley faces, peace signs, hearts, and hand signals showing their version of “Peace” and “Love.”
We set our goal at $500 dollars and explained to our students their role in this fundraiser. Each student was to make a sculpture which we would sell for a minimum donation of one dollar.
Sunset Park Elementary is a “Leader In Me” school, which means our students are awarded for participating in fundraisers and other community outreach programs. Each student who participated in our fundraiser received a bookmark provided by Children’s Diabetes Foundation and a bracelet that says “Stand Up, Be a Leader”.
This year our students raised $1,603.15 for the Children’s Diabetes Foundation. All the artwork pieces went home with one of our bookmarks of the signs and symptoms of diabetes. Through this, we have taught our students to support their community and to give back, as well as the symptoms of type 1 diabetes. This year they did an amazing job supporting their community and their classmates living with diabetes.
