Eighth Graders in the teen living program at Webb Middle School took part in a wonderful community service project. In photo above, from left, teacher Sandy Lavely and her students Hannah Syftestad and Chelsee Carrig donate the gift bags to RAMC's Marsha Stolte.
Following is from teacher Sandy Lavely and some of her students:
RICE BAG RELIEF
What a great bunch of teenagers we have in Reedsburg! My name is Sandy Lavely, and I am the 7th and 8th grade Family and Consumer Science teacher at Webb Middle School. Every year, our 8th grade Teen Living students have an opportunity to participate in a small business/entrepreneur project. The students create, produce, and market items that are sold to staff members, students, and parents prior to the holiday season. Profits from these sales are then used to fund our community service project.
After many discussions regarding how to make a difference in the lives of others, we decided to make this year’s community service project based on cancer awareness. The students created over 250 gift bags filled with handmade rice bags, a water bottle, and candy. These gift bags were delivered to RAMC Specialty Center, St. Claire’s Hospital, Mile Bluff Medical Center, Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital, Home Health United, and the University of Wisconsin-Children’s Hospital and were given to cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. With the support of Viking Village, Ardyth’s Sew-n-Shoppe, the Webb Fund, Casey Campbell and Clint Beyer (Webb Middle School Administrators), and many parents, this year’s project touched the hearts those receiving the gift bags, as well as those giving them.
I would like to explain more, but I believe it’s better said through the reflective writings of my students. To me, this project was like the planting of a tiny seed, and it is my goal to, over the years, nurture it into a mighty oak tree.
Sandy Lavely
Webb Middle School
Hi, my name is Chelsee Carrig. I am an 8th grader at Webb Middle School. Lately in our Teen Living classes, we have been working on the annual community service project. This year, the creative minds here at Webb decided that with the money we earned from our Christmas fundraiser, we were going to make rice bags. These rice bags are going to be donated to local hospitals and other medical facilities for those dealing with cancer. The rice bags can be heated up or cooled down to melt away the aches and pains of going through the treatment. On many of the rice bags, we embroidered inspiring words, such as hope, faith, strength, dream, smile and laughter. To get inspiration for the project, our teacher, Mrs. Lavely, sent an e-mail to her friend who is currently dealing with cancer. She gave us a good idea about what it is like to have cancer and how if affects her daily life. With the knowledge we learned from Mrs. Lavely’s friend, we decided to expand the project even further. Soon enough, the project became larger than we had ever expected. Our classes came up with the idea of adding water bottles and hard candies to the gift bags along with the rice bag. We have made a large quantity of these gift bags, and we would like to thank the local community for their help is providing us with discounted rice and donated gift bags. Also, a huge thanks to the Webb Fund for providing us with the new embroidery machine earlier this year. We would not have been able to do any of this without everyone’s support!
Chelsee Carrig
8th grade student
Webb Middle School
Over the past few weeks, my 8th grade Teen Living class has been working on a community service project. We decided we should give back to the community for all they do to support our school. All of our classes chose to make rice bags for cancer patients. While making these rice bags, we learned a lot about what a cancer patient goes through on a daily basis and what treatments are like for them. We learned this by asking our teacher’s friend some questions we had about cancer. By doing this, we gained a better understanding of what life is like for a cancer patient. While doing this project, local businesses made very generous donations to our cause, and we thank them for that! I think a lot of the students in my class weren’t so sure they would enjoy participating in a community service project, but in the end found it was a very enjoyable and rewarding thing to do. Most of the students were probably questioning why should they do a community service project, when I don’t even get anything from it, but we learned that you can make life a little easier for someone else and you get the satisfaction of feeling good because you helped someone. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Everybody can be great….because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” I believe that my 8th grade Teen Living class has proven that this is
true.
Hannah Syftestad
8th grade student
Webb Middle School
Quotes from students:
‘Community is very important’– Savannah Dunse
“We CAN help out our community” – Samantha Trembath
“We get the feeling of satisfaction of being able to help others” – Amber Carlson
“I would like to thank everyone who donated to the cause” – Jonathan Herman
“Prove to yourself that you CAN improve the world we live in” – Jacqueline Rose Burris
“I hope that our project will make somebody’s life a little better and more relaxing” – Paige Groell
“We enjoyed giving back to the community” – Emmilie Kellner
“I think people receiving our rice bags will be happy that we have helped our community” – Josh DeBaets
“It feels great to know that all our hard work was for a good cause” – Austin Phelphes
“Have love in your heart to do good things” – Kristen Janechek
“It was fun!” – Jennifer Peterson
“One person can make a huge change by doing one small thing” – Abby Clement
“I hope people who receive the rice bags will enjoy them” – Elvia Valles
“I felt inspired while working on this project” – Sammi Leamons
“Making the rice bags helped out our community in many ways” – Tricia Greenwood
“We all took our time on the rice bags because we knew they were going to a good cause” – Sushmeet Sandhu
“I hope to do projects like this throughout my life because it makes me feel good helping people” – Mariah Kruel
“Our 8th grade Teen Living class really enjoyed making the rice bags” – Sara Barbknecht
“Please accept this rice bag; it’s really nice”– Dustin Palmer
“You have support, people helping you fight….they believe” – Cassie Mitchell
“I had fun!” – Cory Shelton
“This taught us to respect others and to do good things for them” – Autumn Schmelzer
“I think this will help people feel better” – Allie Steinhorst
“It feels great to help in the community” – Hannah Parkhurst
“We all hope the rice bags make people feel better” – LeeAnne Pierce
“I felt proud of myself when I was working of this project”– Tesha Deitelhoff
“The Power of Love” – Shosie Kimberlin
“Change the World” – Caila Pinten
“Think about the needs of others” – Bri Carbon
“Live your life to its fullest” – Cora Seal
“This is important” – Zach Johnston
“This project makes me feel good about what my peers and I are doing” – Jessie Gauf
“A little time from your daily lives can help so many people” – Doran Goodbear
“I hope you enjoy this gift and it makes you feel better” – Tasha Hawes
“We are very happy to be making rice bags for other people” – Jennifer Krueger
“Most people don’t realize what a difference they can make” – Darci Wafle
“In the world there are three thing that last forever, Faith, Hope and Love” – Rudie Koberstein
“This experience was heart-touching” – Ashley Smith
“I feel good helping people with cancer” – Nicholas Hahn
“I feel very good knowing I was a part of a great project to help others” – Tess Walker
“It’s a great feeling to know that we are helping people” – Payton Legner
“A lot of people do nice things for everyone, so we should really do nice things for other people” – Mariah Baetje
“You got the power” – Joey Doty
“Outstanding” – Trevor Bauer
“I thought it was a good idea to help cancer patients” – Sami Strutz
“We would love to thank the Webb Fund for donating the embroidery machine” – Mikayla Cloud
“I felt really good about what we are doing” – Carleigh Adams
“It makes me happy to be able to contribute to the community” – Ellen Leake
“Making rice bags is fun” – Austin Azevedo
“I would like to thank those who helped pull this amazing project off” – Jolene Brigman