Ishmael Beah describes, in A Long Way Gone, his rescue by members of UNICEF. Students experience the power of that moment through Beah’s account, and it often raises the question of what we should do — what we, in our community, should do when we know there is injustice in the world.
You will have many answers, we hope, as part of our discussions and your writing. One answer, though, is to help UNICEF continue its good work. That is our project:
You will be given your own boxes, which you can use to collect donations for the rest of the month of October. You might give one to a parent to take to work; you could bring one with you to church; with permission, you could even put one in another classroom.
As a class, we will be doing something more. Your teachers will bring in baskets; you will bring in candy and other snacks; and we will create a prize to be raffled off in the high school. There will be one basket per class period, and its quality and draw will depend on what you donate.
We’ll start collecting on Monday, October 15. Bring in candy and other goodie-basket goods. On October 19, the baskets will be wrapped up, decorated, and set aside. The next week, we’ll join forces with Mrs. Juska’s classes and Mr. Looby’s classes to sell raffle tickets down in the cafeteria. Each basket will eventually have one winner, and we will have raised money for a good cause.
We will go over the details of this service project in class. Since you must continue your work on the novel and your burgeoning projects, you should focus on bringing in snacks and treats for the basket; your teachers will set up class time for the baskets themselves.
Keep in mind that we will eventually need students to man the tables down in the cafeteria. Volunteering your time certainly fits some of the skills and traits that matter, so there’s an extrinsic motivation to go with the intrinsic joy of helping others. Here is the sign-up form:
That form is also posted on Google Classroom. You can sign up as early and as often as you like, as long as it is during your actual lunch period or a study hall. Again, there are extrinsic/GAP-driven reasons to do this, not just intrinsic ones.
Ask questions about this project in the comment section here.