The day of the event I was sick in the morning. Thankfully, Lydia was able to take the fleece and snacks down to the cafeteria to set up. Macy Miller helped her. I made it to school near the end of their set up. I went down to Mrs. Seifert's classroom, and she gave us scissors. Then, we waited for the Lab B bell. As soon as it rang, students poured into the cafeteria to help. Lydia and I were expecting around 20 students; however, 50 students participated in the blanket and snack pack making. From the project, we finished all the snack packs and the 18 blankets. We packed all the snack packs into orange and black holders. Then, we loaded the blankets into cardboard boxes. This past Wednesday during service learning class, Lydia and I delivered the blankets and snack packs to the Ronald McDonald House Charities. We found a lady and she told us to drop the materials off and sign a paper. Lydia filled out the paper. The lady thanked us and we were on our way. Overall, the project was a success, and Lydia and I accomplished what we wanted. Hopefully, we had a positive impact on the students and the Ronald McDonald House Charities.
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We last left off with finally having all the items required to run our project. The shipment of fleece came in. Lydia and I had Katie and Macy help cut the fleece into appropriate lengths. Then, we organized the fleece into pairs that would create a full blanket. We created a google sheet to keep track of people volunteering. From there, we emailed Ms. Clayton, Mrs. Seifert, and Mrs. Penrod asking if they would be willing to promote our project and provide volunteer hours for participants. Ms. Clayton responded swiftly and sent out an email to all members of the National Honor Society. Also, Mrs. Seifert forwarded a remind message out to members of the Science National Honor Society. We did not receive an email back from Mrs. Penrod. Next, we messaged Mr. Burk to ask if he would advocate Snuggles and Snacks on NP120. He accepted and will put information about our project on this upcoming weeks NP120 video. Also, we contacted Mrs. Robinson to try and get our project out on the NPHS Announcements document. The next day, she added the details of Snuggles and Snacks. Lydia and I are in the process of printing and hanging up Snuggles and Snacks fliers around the school. We printed ten copies. Currently, we have ten people signed up to help make blankets and snack packs. Lydia and I hope to attain more volunteers. Now, we are making final preparations for the day of our project. Once the activities are completed, the only step left is to take the blankets and snack packs to the Ronald McDonald House of Central Indiana.
Ronald McDonald's Snuggles and Snacks has had to traverse through difficulties. We last left off when we applied for the Learningtogive.org grant. The organization took a week or so to get back to us. Disappointingly, we did not receive the grant. This provided a halt to our project because we needed materials to craft the blankets and snack packs. We consulted with Mr. Large and Ms. Glover, the treasurer at NPHS, to find alternative ways to fund the project. Mr. Large offered us the opportunity to use the extra Service Learning class funds to buy fleece. Lydia and I searched JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores for affordable fleece. Fortunately, they were having a fall sale while we were shopping. We compiled a shopping cart with enough fleece to make 18 blankets for the Ronald McDonald House of Central Indiana. Ms. Glover connected with JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores to place the order. There were issues ordering the fleece. Thankfully, Ms. Glover sorted everything out and kept contacting JoAnn's daily until the order was placed. While the Ms. Glover and Mr. Large were finding a way to purchase the fleece, my partner and I applied for a grant from GenerationOn. Mr. Large helped with the process of filling out the application. GenerationOn quickly replied and said that we were receiving a grant for $250. With the grant, we now had the money to purchase items for the snack packs. Lydia and I left on a Wednesday during Lab B to go to Walmart to purchase goods. Overall, the trip was successful as we brought back nearly $170 worth of food. We faced a problem checking out because the cashier wouldn't accept our tax exemption paper. I tried to hand my phone over to the lady so that she could talk to Mr. Large; however, she denied the request. We ended up paying for the tax. When we returned to school, my partner and I carried the food up into Mr. Large's storage room. Lydia and I now have everything necessary to have the Ronald McDonald's Snuggles and Snacks during Lab B!
My partner Lydia and I volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House of Central Ohio over the summer. Lydia's mom works at American Family Insurance, and they were doing a One Saturday Event for the Ronald McDonald House. While we were there, we spent our time making blankets and touring the house. The passion the staff has for creating the best atmosphere for the kids at the Ronald McDonald House influenced us to want to make a difference. There are many rooms at the Ronald McDonald House of Central Ohio dedicated to certain activities and organizations. To name a few, there was a music room full of instruments, an Ohio State University football filled with Urban Meyer autographed items, and a movie theater with every movie you could think of. So many people spend their time creating a positive environment for the children and families at the house. Lydia and I want to have an impact on the Ronald McDonald House families. At first, we wanted to start an item drive; however, other students in our class were already doing an item drive. So, we are pushing that project to a later date. Instead, we decided we wanted to get students at New Palestine High School involved in making fleece blankets and snack packs. In order to do this, Mr. Large, our teacher for this service learning class, helped us request a grant from Learningtogive.org. If we receive this grant, we will have the funds to purchase fleece from JoAnn Fabrics and Craft Stores and food packages from other locations. Also, we want to obtain New Palestine drawstring bags and put the blankets and snack packs in them. We have already contacted Mr. Barton, the Assistant Principal, and have the cafeteria reserved on Thursday, October 4th. To entice students to participate in making these crafts, Lydia and I talked to Ms. Clayton, and she is allowing us to offer community service hours for helping. We are in the process of sending out emails to Mrs. Seifert and Mrs. Penrod to ask the same. After this, we will set up fliers around the school and have the activities announced on the intercom. Also, Lydia and I plan to contact Mr. Burk to have him announce our Snuggles and Snacks activity on NP120. Our goal with Ronald McDonald's Snuggles and Snacks is to unite students together in order to help the Ronald McDonald House of Central Indiana Lydia and I had to present our proposal to New Palestine High School and New Palestine Elementary School administrators. In class, we created a google doc and google slide outlining why we chose to do this and our goals with the project. On the day of our proposal, we dressed professional. The administrators walked into Mr. Large's classroom and Lydia handed all of them the google doc outline we created. Then, Lydia and I presented our project proposal in front of the class and administrators. We were both nervous to present, but afterwards Lydia and I felt confident we did well. The administrators provided feedback to help enhance our project. |
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