Our Mission
As a class, we are reaching out to our community. The connections that we are making by pursuing our community service projects are creating a network. We are learning about interacting with community members, and we are learning to identify the needs of the people around us. After that, students are brainstorming ideas in order to move towards solving the issues that permeate our community.
The projects that we are honored to be a part of are not semester to semester school projects, rather the projects are passed down from graduating students, and the story continues.
The North valley food bank
Who They Are
Across the state of Montana, hundreds of families are reliant on the support of the Montana Food Bank Network (MFBN). There is a shortage of support. Our local food bank, the North Valley Food Bank is working persistently to bridge this gap. Their mobile pantry program supplies food to several communities in the surrounding area, which includes Trego, Olney, and Essex. Anaya Brown, the Volunteer Coordinator, explained that many times, more families than the amount that live in the town that they deliver to arrive needing food. With this information, it can be grasped that many families are needing to travel to keep their families fed. The need reaches beyond the level of assistance that can be given. Expansion of the Delivery Program may be necessary. Raising awareness of the need draws us nearer to the goal of closing the gap.
Our Family's Impact
Our students arranged beautiful bouquets from the flowers that were grown by Whitestar Organics. We then donated the bouquets to the North Valley Food Bank. The beauty in this is that three families who receive food from our local food bank were also given a bouquet. Beyond that, the amount of joy that this act created is overwhelming.
The Preservation of Legacies
At The Springs senior living home in Whitefish, a student approached these two people to discover how our class could preserve the legacies of the community. The man on the left was simply visiting his older sister, and while he was waiting for the bus, he began to talk with the lady on the right. A student posed the question: How can we honor our senior citizens? Their interaction provided the answer to the question that the student was seeking to answer: Our class needs to listen to the stories. Each person can leave behind a legacy, but we will have to seek to listen to their stories to understand the extent of their wisdom. Such knowledge must be preserved. This is the beginning of the preservation of legacies.
This woman is holding a painting of her house that she left behind on the East Coast. So much joy and fondness were captured by the painter. The sentimental value of the piece of artwork is unmeasurable.
As we come across people during our studies within this program, it is clear that we must listen to their stories. In doing so, we can extract knowledge that would have slipped away with time.
David Shedon's Story
About a dozen students underwent OSHA 10 training. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration is an agency that strives to preserve employees' rights to safe working environments. Our instructor, David, taught our students with an intense passion. He left a legacy behind within those 10 hours of training. He told his stories, little by little, as the students underwent the training. He was a miner for around two decades before he had his accident. David's ankle was crushed by machinery. Due to this, his career ended when his leg was amputated from just below the knee. Throughout his career, he had to endure six coworker fatalities. The pain of these traumas installed great passion within him. He stressed the simplicity of avoiding many of these horrific tragedies. The joy that is seen on his face in this photo is assuredly due to the impact that he is making. He holds a creed: to see all workers return home to their families, to see the injured begin again, and for all to leave behind a legacy. His devotion to this vision left a lasting mark on us, our class. His legacy is being forged.
Tactile Learning
At the WHS 2022 Homecoming football game, we allowed the children at the game to turn the handle on the apple cider press. In doing so, it allowed them to see how the mechanisms of the press worked.