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.