In a season of giving, Luann Engstrom’s third-graders at Alamosa Park Elementary School earned a symbolic A-plus-plus in community service.
Engstrom’s 24 students each took on a project to help a charitable group. They chose which agency they wanted to help, wrote proposals, and contacted the agencies directly to get approval.
“This grew from a social studies lesson,” said Engstrom, a 30-year teaching veteran. “We’d done some isolated things at the school, but I just wanted to do something different. It’s the Vista Unified School District mission to have the school work with families in the community.”
And the children jumped right in. They created their own fliers and posters to advertise the donation events, carefully counted the number of items collected, and delivered them directly to the charities with their parents.
The students worked through October, November and December, “trying to get it all done by Christmas,” said Engstrom. Their impressive results included:
Supplying socks (309 pairs), shoes (190 pairs), shirts, sweaters and jackets (179), blankets (58), toiletries (271) and food (80 items) for the homeless;
Collecting blankets and towels (58), and food (39) for the local branch of the San Diego County Humane Society;
Making get-well cards for sick children (60), and gathering books for Project Head Start preschoolers (383), school supplies (788) for students, first-aid kits (43) for a church ministry, and food (221 items) to feed three Alamosa Park families.
Students also collected change ($120) to help children with lymphoma, collected stuffed animals for children at the Women’s Resource Center, planted a vegetable garden for a preschool, picked up trash at the Oceanside Beach and Alamosa Park, and painted over graffiti at the park.
The children’s efforts benefited their own campus, too, said Engstrom. When custodian Nick Henry asked whether the students could help him tackle a litter problem “we set aside a two-hour cleanup period for him as a Christmas gift,” she said. “We picked up a lot of trash, which brought a smile to his face as well as to my students’ faces!”
The kids had lots of interesting experiences as they completed their projects, Engstrom said. “One little boy, who had spent time in Tri-City Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit when he was born, decided to collect recyclables and donate the money ($47) to the NICU. When he went to turn over the money, he ended up meeting the CEO.”
And an effort to send 100 gift bags and 200 letters to U.S. troops overseas sparked a return gesture: The troops sent back photos of themselves opening the gifts and letters.
The lessons went way beyond collecting for charity, said Engstrom. During one food drive, “for two days in a row, a child left a black banana and a bag of berries in the box. It was that child’s way of trying to donate something.”
The children also learned persistence, she said, and “that it feels good to give.” One boy who had collected socks brought them to the charity with his mother. “The people were so grateful to him that he came home and wanted to go through his toys to donate them, too,” Engstrom said.
High school students are helping her class make a video about their projects. “It’s been a great learning process for all of us,” she said. “We touched a lot of hearts in the community.”
One more project is scheduled: a working visit in March to the local Humane Society. After that, Engstrom hopes the lessons in giving will continue beyond her classroom.
“Even though they were tiny, they were mighty,” she said proudly of her 7- and 8-year-old charges. “They had the power to change lives.”
laura.groch@sduniontribune.com
