Sixth-grader Anna Chisholm had never before volunteered for community service, but she said she enjoyed the time she spent helping homeless residents in Seattle earlier this year.
By Neil Pierson
Pine Lake Middle School student Darsh Desai explains his community service efforts with the Vedic Cultural Center to teacher Anne Kiemle during the school’s April 21 event, Heropalooza, to celebrate volunteer work among sixth-grade students.
“I feel so sad for people that don’t have the opportunities that I have,” said Chisholm, who packed and delivered supplies, and prepared breakfast for homeless adults and teens, alongside members of her select basketball team.
Chisholm wasn’t alone among her peers at Pine Lake Middle School. Many had their eyes opened to the plights of others for the first time this year because of a school requirement. All sixth-graders, through their language arts and social studies classes, have to complete a community service project, and then write about the impact it had on them and the people they helped.
Sixth-grade teachers Eric Ensey, Angie Hardy, Chris Hill, Jill Knutson, Chris Miske and Lauren Roon, and eighth-grade teacher Anne Kiemle, organized the assignments, which culminated April 22 with the school’s Heropalooza event. There, each of the roughly 300 students spent 30 minutes after school discussing their projects, all of which were displayed on large poster boards.
“We let the kids choose the area that they would like to work in, and their goal was 10 hours,” Knutson said. “Lots of kids do more, and lots of kids continue on through the spring, so this doesn’t mean it’s the end.
“But we have 300 kids, everybody doing at least 10 hours, so at least a minimum of 3,000 hours worth of service in our local area.”
The list of organizations the students chose from were wide-ranging — cancer support groups, military-oriented groups such as Wounded Warriors, food and clothing banks, and more. One student, Knutson said, spent time doing chores for a disabled neighbor.
Mustafa Miyaziwala and others raised $386 through their bake-sale project, Snacks for Slavery. The profits went to the International Justice Mission, an organization Miyaziwala said he liked because it helps combat slavery in his native country of India.
Along with helping the homeless, Chisholm spent time at Rosebud River Ranch in Snoqualmie.
“They have so many horses that they need someone to help,” she said.
Kaia Larsen and her friend Alex Gray started a drive for supplies that they called Hygiene for Homeless. They gathered items like toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, deodorant and cotton swabs, and then brought them to a local tent city.
“I think it was really a good opportunity, because I don’t think people know,” Larsen said. “They just think the homeless people did something to get themselves there, but really, they are human, too, and they deserve to have the same cleanness and same opportunities that we do.
“And I think … if they’re nice and clean, it’ll help them get a job, maybe sooner than if they come not clean. I just hope it helps them get more opportunities.”
The projects, which began in November, tied into Pine Lake’s social studies and language arts curriculum. In class, students learned about Greek mythology and its extensive use of heroes.
“We talk about the ‘unlikely hero,’” Knutson said, “so you are an unlikely hero, but you can be like a Greek god because you’re changing the world.”
Knutson said she witnessed many examples — commonly, it happened at the Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank or Eastside Baby Corner — where students had a “wow” moment because they were startled by what they learned.
“To think that a family doesn’t have enough food, or diapers for their baby, and they live maybe in our neighborhood, it was overwhelming to some kids,” she said. “… And every single student says, ‘Aren’t I lucky? We all have so much.’”