Making a lasting difference
By Jerry W. Kram
Kelley Eickenbrock challenged students in her Problems of Democracy classes to find projects to participate in that would make a difference. What they decided to do will be a visible symbol for years to come.
Most of the students decided they wanted to plant trees around New Town High School and the Lakeside Community Living Center both to beautify the community and leave a lasting, visible reminder of their class. Two students, Reese Cummings and Kelsey Demery chose a different project, making care packages to send to military members overseas.
Eickenbrock said that while this was a class project, all of the effort and planning belonged to the students.
"The idea of the project is to show them that if they do the hard work, they can actually make something come to life," Eickenbrock said. "Some doubted. They didn’t think it would get done. So I had them call the soil conservation place for the trees. They picked how many they wanted. They did all the fundraising. I would hope it will show that if they have an idea and put in the hard work they can actually get it accomplished."
One class wanted to beautify the school grounds for future students, Eickenbrock said. The other class said it wanted to do something for the community’s elders, so they decided to plant fruit trees and lilacs at the LCLC. The students planting trees at the school were Mitchell Baker, Cold Wind Blake, Dante Valenzuela, Michelle White, and Kelson DeCoteau. Ashley Hale, Promise Poitra, Bryant Rodrigo, Andrea Palma, Annelisa Three Irons, and Milly Clark planted trees at the LCLC.
