The fourth "A," Attitude, is emphasized at Upland both in our grading system, which includes the categories of motivation and citizenship, and also in our strong commitment to volunteerism and community service. This year, as part of our observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, each class worked on a project to benefit others. Some projects were completed on January 14, while others are ongoing.

In the Primary Center, the PK class performed acts of kindness at Upland, which tied in with their classroom Jar of Kindness (a part of their daily routine). They helped others around them by watering plants, making a delivery to the library, and putting things away. Meanwhile, Kindergarten made dog biscuits for the West Chester SPCA. This tied into their curriculum as Kindergarten has regular cooking lessons. The first grade decided to use their artistic talents to help others. Mrs. Griffith's sister is involved with Meals on Wheels. She visited the classroom and explained what MOW does. In their art classes, the teachers are helping the children make vases to be given to the MOW center in West Chester. The center's clients will then receive the vases with flowers for their next meal delivery.

Down in the Academic Center, the second graders' project is an ongoing one; they will create and send Valentine's cards to April Stromberg's cousin's Army troop stationed in Kandahar, Afghanistan. They will continue corresponding throughout the year with other holiday remembrances such as Easter and Memorial Day.

Third Grade Dirt Cups

The 3rd through 5th graders decided to raise money for a cause. The third grade made "dirt cups" to sell at Upper School and Lower School lunches on Fri., January 21. They advertised at assembly on Friday and Monday and hung some posters up on Monday to remind people. The proceeds are for a school in Haiti that they have a pen pal relationship with. An art project is also in the works. The fourth graders will be making dog biscuits and pretzels (Pennsylvania unit connection) and selling them at some of the Upland hockey games and lunches. Their proceeds will benefit Canine Partners for Life based in Cochranville. Fifth grade is making Valentine's Day cards to sell school-wide to raise money to make a micro-loan through the website http://www.kiva.org. Kiva's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty. Besides promoting community service, this project will also connect to the students' study of world countries and cultures.

The Upper School was also involved in community service. Some Upper School projects included off-campus travel to local nonprofits to offer assistance in the areas of education (Tick Tock Early Learning Center, Kennett Family Center, Chester County Family Academy), care for the elderly (the Oxford Senior Center), and social services to families in need of food, clothing, and heat (Kennett Food Cupboard and Missión Santa María).

The goal for this day is to gain a greater understanding of community needs, to be a trusted partner to non-profits and others providing for these needs, and to take responsibility, both for our individual contributions and our collaboration as a school, for working to make life better for all people.

On Thursday, October 7, Student Council sponsored a Tag Day. Tag Days are days when students may opt out of the dress code without facing discipline, as long as they pay a nominal fee. The money goes to various charities, selected by the members of Student Council. This particular Tag Day raised money to benefit a school in Haiti. The school is called L'Ecole Les Gais Paipillons, and it is in Montrois, Haiti (a little to the north of Port-au-Prince). The Tag Day raised $200.00, which will be used to help build new classrooms.

Pictured here are some Upper School students enjoying the chance to wear jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats.


Here are students from L'Ecole Les Gais Paipillons.

During the winter of 2009-2010, two of Upland's students had the opportunity to be of service to others, and have shared their experiences with the School. Shaz Rishi, 9th grader, traveled to Syria with his family to give aid to refugees from the Iraqi war. Thea Toocheck, in 5th grade, spent a week in Bolivia with her father, helping out in an eye clinic.

Shaz and his family went to Syria for 12 days in December 2009. Shaz used his experiences in Syria as the basis for his Assembly Speech (each 9th grader has to give a presentation to the whole school). In his speech, Shaz explained, "We were in Syria to collaborate with many doctors, social workers, and members from several non-profit organizations to assess the needs of the Iraqi refugees and establish a friendship with the Syrians." He went on to say, "On the plane trip over, I constantly wondered about how different their culture would be and how I could make difference for them. I was confident that I would do everything I could to change their lives, but I didn't expect that they would actually change mine. During my stay, I learned several life lessons from the refugees and the Syrians in general." He concluded with the comment, "My message to you all is don't be afraid to try and help those in need. It is important to know that by helping one person you may help an entire generation. Be willing to learn more about others' customs and traditions so you can truly understand what they need. They will accept you if they can see that you go to such great lengths to understand the tragedies that have befallen them. These lessons that I've learned have taught me to extend my goals to help those less fortunate than us. For every small step we take towards helping each person we can move that much closer to establishing lasting friendships around the world." Click Here for the full text of Shaz's speech.

Thea's trip took place in January, 2010. From January 16 through the 24th, Thea Toocheck traveled to Bolivia as a volunteer working with VOSH (Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity), an organization of which her father, Dr. Dan Toocheck, is a member. VOSH programs provide eye exams and eyeglasses, treat eye disease and sometimes refer or perform eye surgery. You can learn more about VOSH at http://www.vosh.org.

Thea brought with her $200.00 which Upland students had raised to donate to a Bolivian orphanage. While in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Thea helped sort donated sunglasses for distribution at the clinic, entertained children who were waiting for their exams, and visited the orphanage "Aldeas de Niños" which serves 317 orphans. This was the orphanage which received Upland's donation. "Aldeas de Ninos" is only one of seven orphanages run by Father La Aldea.

According to a report written by Mel Muchnik with Natalie Venezia, available in full at http://www.vosh.org/files/Ill09bolovia.pdf, the team of 23 (6 Optometrists, 1 optician, and 16 lay volunteers including four teens) "was able to treat 2,200 patients in just four days. We were exhausted but gratified that we could help so many." Muchnik noted that "the four teens [one of whom was Thea] were an incredible addition providing energy and spirit."

Thea herself says that the trip was a lot of fun, and she recommends the experience to others. She would definitely go again, because, as she noted, "I really liked helping everyone."

These two individuals have demonstrated values that Upland works to instill in all our students. We're very proud of them!

Spring 2009

Improving nutritional and economic sustainability through vegetable gardens:
With increasing food costs and a sluggish economy, more families are finding it impossible to purchase nourishing foods. Last spring, Upland students were invited to join the Community Gardens of Chester County in building raised-bed vegetable gardens at the Kennett Food Cupboard. Three Upland students rose to the challenge. These included alumna Lindsay Harrington and mom Erin, Jeffrey Fralick and Malorie Murray. The raised beds (10'x3'x 3") were framed out with wood, and newspaper was laid down to prevent weeds. The bed was next filled with prepared soil, and finally seeds and seedlings were planted. As we worked on the project Lindsay said, " I would love to build these garden beds at Upland with students." Stay tuned for more on this idea.

As a gesture of appreciation, the Kennett Food Cupboard has invited the Upland community to an Open House and Dedication of their new facility on September 29th from 4:00 to 7:00 pm.

Summer 2009

Assisting with Kindergarten Readiness for Spanish-speaking Children
School had not let out for the summer when five Upland students were already thinking about how they could serve children in the community. Over a six-week period in June and July, Lucy and Jane Yeatman, Kristin Lindsay, Malorie Murray and Chelsea Perkins helped out at the Kennett Family Center, preparing children for Kindergarten. Under the direction of the Upland students, the pre-schoolers worked at each of four stations, including Handwriting Without Tears; number sense; pre-literacy with stories; and projects to develop fine-motor, listening, and direction-following skills in English. Jane Yeatman said, of her experience, " I learned that I could help children to learn something for themselves."

Looking Ahead

Creating a welcoming Space at the new Kennett Food Cupboard building
Last year, the director of the Kennett Food Cupboard, Sandy Reynolds, invited Upland to create a welcoming mural in the reception area for their new building. We will be offering this opportunity for art and service to Upper School students who have demonstrated artistic talent and ability to work independently. The mural will be created during Activity periods to be delivered to the Food Cupboard by the end of April. Art faculty Kathryn Humphrey and Terry Anderson have selected students for this special community project and will be guiding the efforts of the team.

Bilingual Service Learning Aimed at Improving Nutritional and Economic Sustainability
Discussions are underway about an exciting possibility: a collaborative garden project in which Upland students and Mary D. Lang elementary students would build raised gardens at Mary D. Lang in conjunction with the Community Gardens of Chester County. Garden yields would be harvested by students during the school year, and in the summer would be available to the Food Cupboard, which is located across the street from Mary D. Lang. This project would provide students with an opportunity to collectively learn garden science and sustainability through a hands-on bilingual science unit. The beauty of this project is its combination of community collaboration and real-world use of Spanish to fill a practical need.

This year, Upland students and faculty have decided to adopt "Pennies for Peace" as a school-wide community service initiative. The inspiration for the project is Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea, the remarkable memoir of a journey that began as a mountain climbing expedition in Pakistan and became a mission to promote peace through the building of schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan through the Central Asia Institute, which Mortenson founded. "Pennies for Peace" helps to further the mission of the Central Asia Institute (CAI), which focuses on community-based education, especially for girls. A 5th grade education for girls improves not only the basic indices of health for her and her family, but girls also spread the value of education within their communities. Literacy, for both boys and girls, provides better economic opportunities in the future and neutralizes the power of despot mullahs and other extremist leaders. "Pennies for Peace" teaches children the rewards of sharing and working together to bring hope and educational opportunities to children in Pakistan and Afghanistan. A penny in the United States is virtually worthless, but in Pakistan and Afghanistan a penny buys a pencil and opens the door to literacy. Last year's fourth grade adopted Pennies for Peace as their final Poppin' for Charity project for the year. Over the summer teacher Julie Wells, Head of School Dave Suter and several other faculty members who read Mortenson's book began wondering what our little school might be able to do if we adopted "Pennies for Peace" as a year long school-wide project.

After a kick-off assembly about the project in September, the third, fourth and eighth grades collaborated on decorating large collection jars which have been placed around the school. Third and fourth graders also made posters in support of the project.

So look for stray pennies in your couch, in the car and on the street and bring them into add to one of our collection jars. (Nickels, dimes and quarters will be cheerfully accepted as well!) Stayed tuned for updates on what Upland kids are learning as they work to help bring literacy to kids on the other side of the world. And let's just see what, working together, our little school is able to do!

Each year since Julie Wells has taught 4th grade, her classes have written to active duty servicemen in the armed forces. The idea came from Julie's son, Branden, a Sergeant in the Marine Corps who was served in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom and told her that what GIs wanted more than anything were letters and pictures from home. Many of the soldiers who served with Branden have little or no family and so the letters, pictures and artwork, which the kids send, are so precious and end up decorating the walls and lockers of their barracks and tents. This year the class has been writing to Ensign James Heckman, who is a cousin of 4th grade student PJ Jenks. Ensign Heckman is the supply officer for the USS Philadelphia, a submarine that has taken him to all parts of the world. When Ensign Heckman was on leave in February, he visited his 4th grade pen pals answering lots of questions and showing them a video of how submarines work. Ensign Heckman presented Mrs. Wells an American flag, which had been flown on the USS Philadelphia and gave each student an emblem from the sub, which he autographed.

We're poppin' popcorn for you and me. We're poppin' popcorn for charity!

On January 25, 2006 fourth grade began poppin'. Each grade in the school had been challenged to develop a service project idea in honor of Martin Luther King's birthday and our brains were just poppin' full of ideas and our hearts were poppin' with the desire to do something that would last longer than just one day of service. We were poppin' with the urge to make a difference.

So we started popping popcorn and selling it two days a week in the lunchroom. And it has made a big difference, with respect to both our brains and our hearts.

With respect to our brains, we discovered more math. We needed to learn how to make change from a dollar, discover fractions of a dollar, count/sort/wrap coins, how to prepare a treasurer's report with beginning and ending balances, profit and loss. We learned how to measure popcorn ingredients with measuring cups, make charts and graphs displaying trends and projections. In Language Arts we learned to write slogans, prepare and present announcements, write advertising. In music class, we wrote a jingle and sang it to whoever would listen and it caught on. In Social Studies we discovered the history of popcorn. We learned about job responsibility and job assignments. We have specific jobs that include popper-packers, janitors, treasurers, an advertising department and overseers. Each member of the class learns how to do each job; job assignments rotate each week.

Our parents and their co-workers, came in and talked with the class about how to run a small business. They explained expenditures, profits, and taught us about business planning. We also learned about how to research a charity by reading tax statements and mission statements.

Our hearts felt good because the money raised in 2006 could be used benefit others in the community. Our first beneficiary was the Mission Santa Maria in Kennett Square. We raised $300.00 and took a trip to the Mission to learn about the organization and how our gift might help. We learned that one of the things the Mission does is to help families with new babies. We assembled three baskets filled with supplies for new babies.

Then we heard about the kennel in Oxford that abused 300 puppies. So we started "popping for puppies" and "popping for paws." We raised $135.00 and saved some puppies. What's next?

How about helping 9-10 year old children who have never played an organized sport? So we were "poppin for an opportunity to play." We purchased soccer balls and shorts. and helped with a migrant education soccer tournament hosted by our school.

By 2007, we needed a bigger popcorn popper. The current one we have did not keep up with the demands of our customers, so we realized we needed to upgrade and bring our popcorn to all of Upland's events. We estimated that it would cost about $800.00 to take this next step. So the 2007 4th class took a business plan to our Head of School, who was so impressed with our business proposal that he immediately approved a business loan and gave us permission to order a bigger and better model. Two students worked with their father to build a cart with wheels and a storage area for the machine and supplies. Our popcorn business became portable! We started selling our popcorn at Upland's drama and music productions and athletic events. Other 2007 innovations included the "Frequent Popper Shopper Card." Our proceeds benefited Cure Autism Now, Tick Tock Learning Center and repaid $400.00 of our business loan.

How could the 2008 4th grade poppers top this? It's hard to imagine that they could come up with anything else but each class is so creative, and they did! As they reflected on the questions, "How else can we reach customers?" and "What else can we do to gain more profits?," someone suggested, "How about a mascot?" In 2008, Poppy, Upland's Popcorn mascot was born. Now students can purchase popcorn and have a picture taken with Poppy. This year our service projects have included a Literacy Bag Project and purchasing and decorating two Christmas trees for needy families. We have also made donations to Cure Autism Now and the American Red Cross.

But we have a need to "go green," so we're teaming up with our Science teacher and we're going to try to run our popcorn machine on solar power. Isn't that awesome? While we're at it, we're going to try to help the people of The Gambia Power UP by donating our profits to them during the month of April.

Stay tuned. There are more great popping stories to come.
Julie Wells

By PRUE OSBORN

Students at Upland Country Day School are committed to community service through out the school year, but the entire upper and lower school comes out in force for the Martin Luther King, Jr. day of service Friday.

While the children in the lower grades will be working on service projects in their classrooms, the eighth and ninth graders - Upland’s top grades - will be working in small groups at various community locations. 

Before they get to work, students will hear presentations by Upland parent Dr. Richard Johnson, a psychologist and American Red Cross volunteer.  He has been volunteering as a mental health volunteer for the last eight years after local and national disasters. He said he plans to speak about the difference volunteerism makes and also about his volunteer work in New Orleans working with families displaced by Hurricane Katrina and recently in California with families displaced by the wild fires. He will bring to the school the red and white Chester County American Red Cross emergency response vehicle for the children to tour.

Head of lower school Mary Ledger said most of the service activities tie in with the curriculum throughout the year.

Pre-kindergarteners are making notes of kindness and appreciation to the Upland faculty. Kindergarteners are baking dog biscuits for the West Chester SPCA.

First Grade will be conducting a book drive for the Tick Tock early Learning Center and making bookplates. 

Second Grade is supporting Faithful Friends, a no kill, sanctuary for abused and unwanted animals.  The kids are collecting a variety of supplies to help care for the animals such as food, blankets, bandages, ointments, toys, paper items and shampoo.  The students will decorate the boxes to hold the supplies, and the teachers will deliver them. In addition, second grade will collect pinecones, cover them with peanut butter and roll them in birdseed. They will hang the feeders in trees for hungry feathered friends throughout the campus.

Third Grade is collecting school supplies for an orphanage in Uganda.  Those kids will be boxing supplies for shipment and enclosing letters to the children.

Fourth Grade, for the third year, is "Popping popcorn for charity." Beginning Jan. 22 and continuing through May, students will pop popcorn for the entire school to enjoy at lunch twice a week, at their sports activities and at their drama productions. They expect to raise $800 and target their profits to benefit Autism, Power up Gambia and The American Red Cross.

Fifth Grade is making fleece blankets for the Franciscan Care Center in Hockessin, DE & are also assembling a mailing for the Willowdale Steeplechase.

Clee Edgar, head of Upland’s upper school, said the sixth grade will be away from campus on the annual trip to Williamsburg. 

Seventh Grade will be reading aloud their favorite childhood books into a recorder to make books on tape to be included in reading packets for the local day care. Students in the 8th and 9th grades will split up and go in groups to connect with senior citizens at the Kennett Area Senior Center; to perform various tasks at the Oxford Senior Center; to do clerical work at La Comunidad Hispana and possibly the Chester County Family Academy.

Edgar said the children participate in community service all year as part of the curriculum “without missing too many math and Spanish classes.” 

Spanish teacher and community coordinator Sylvia Barreiro said, “Upland’s vision is so much about developing the whole child, nurturing children and providing opportunities for them to develop the four ‘As’ (academics, athletics, arts and attitude.)  In attitude are character and a sense of citizenship in the school community and the surrounding community where we live.  I see our role as facilitating opportunities for students and their families to partner alongside other organizations working to improve the lives of children and families in the community at large.”

She and head of school Dave Suter attend meetings of the grassroots group Bridging the Community in Kennett Square to network and learn how Upland can reach out to the community “to be the best citizens we can be.” Faculty and staff members also suggest causes that they would like the school to support. Choices are presented to the student council, which then votes on projects to work on through out the year.

This year the students elected to support the Kennett Food Cupboard, which is operated by Kennett Area Community Service.  Not only did they collect food, they held a tag sale to raise funds for food gift cards for extra items the food cupboard needed to fill baskets.  On several different days they sorted goods, distributed it and helped cart the items to the vehicles of the recipients.

The school also partners with the Tick Tock Early Learning Center’s bilingual literacy program and the Linden Street Project’s Study Buddy program in projects twice a term.

It is important, Barreiro said, for the school’s children to understand the “full cycle of volunteer effort”  - seeing the food collection at school, delivering it to the people who need it most and realizing how it helps.
 
“It’s not just handing things out to people. It’s partnering with folks and working along side them as they empower themselves.  It’s understanding and valuing their attributes and their life and their potential and understanding who they are.”

Upland also offers its campus and its facilities to worthy organizations in need of a gathering spot. For the last two years the Valor Cup, soccer competition for the children of migrant workers, has been held on the soccer fields in May. It involved the collaboration of the Chester County Intermediate Unit, Migrant Education, community leaders and Upland.

Barreiro said these service opportunities - during Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service and throughout the year - teach the school’s children the value of volunteerism and their value as members of their community.

This article appeared in the January 23, 2008 of The Kennett Paper and appears here courtesy of the author.