Warsaw Elementary students stepping up to make a difference
WARSAW – Several Warsaw Elementary students have stepped up this year and made positive impacts on their school.
“I want to celebrate the ways these students are making Warsaw Elementary a better place to come to school,” said Principal Sherri Lawrence.
Fourth grader Kynsingten McMasters came up with the idea of having a father daughter dance in February that the school was able to turn into a fundraiser.
“We thought this was something we could do every year to help the fifth graders when they move on to sixth grade and attend Camp Ohio,” Lawrence said. “There are 45 of them and money from this will go to help defray the cost of camp for each of them. It’s the perfect fundraiser because we didn’t want to sell candy bars again and someone else had already done cookie dough. This is something we can all get excited about year after year.”
Another reason Lawrence liked the idea was because it gave students another opportunity to spend time with the male role models in their life.
“The Fatherhood Initiative does breakfasts here every year, but we thought this would give the male figures in our students’ lives that aren’t available in the morning another opportunity to participate in an event,” she said.
About 95 girls in kindergarten through sixth grade at the school attended the dance and McMasters was very excited to be there with her father.
“We had matching outfits,” McMasters said. “My dress was blue and black plaid and he had a blue button down shirt. I liked being able to make others happy and give them a time to celebrate with their grandfathers or fathers and other students. If students have ideas they should bring them up to their teachers or friends and see how they feel about them.”
Third grader Robby Hunt is another student who made an impact on his school. After expressing his dislike for dodgeball, the game of choice for indoor recess, students now have the option to also play LEGOs.
“I brought in some LEGOs from my house and we are talking about adding to the collection,” Lawrence said.
About 15-20 students now gather to play LEGOs and Hunt gives a big thank you to those who made it happen.
Carter Wesney enjoys playing with the LEGOs and working on helping the students be nice to each other.
“I try to break up the drama like who is sitting by who at lunch,” said the third grader.
His classmate Landen Davis also tries to help.
“My friends were fighting on the playground and I went and told a teacher,” Davis said.
He and Wesney were inspired to look out for others by books their teacher Shelly Webb introduced them to.
“I’m really proud of them,” she said. “No matter what job you have you sometimes wonder if you are making an impact, but those two help me see I am.”
Another student who just wants everyone to be happy and get along is second grader Chloe Morris. She didn’t like that people were saving seats and not letting others sit with them so she decided to move and sit with the person who had no one to sit with.
“It made me happy to be able to do that,” Morris said. “I don’t want anyone to feel left out.”
Two third graders at the school are very passionate about encourage students to donate to Pennies for Patients and are giving up recess time to share the stories of those impacted by cancer.
“If people don’t know how it feels to have cancer they won’t know why it’s important to donate money,” said Cooper Whiteus.
Joann Thompson agreed with her classmate.
“We really want everyone to know how it feels so they will donate more money to help kids with cancer,” she said.
Lawrence is very proud of each of these students.
“I realized we weren’t asking the kids for their input and they’ve had some great ideas,” she said. “We need to take time to listen to them and ask them how they would improve the building, their day and the school.”
Category: Education
