Holmes Helping Hands Club
This year the Holmes Community Learning Center offered a very successful program that helped students learn the value of helping others. Students in this program created origami creatures for patients at Bryan Hospital, decorated Meals-On-Wheels bags for Tabitha Home, toured a hospital and more.

The highlight of this program was the student’s fundraiser. The students chose to do a penny drive for Noah’s Assistance Dogs in Crete, Nebraska. The group approached this fundraiser like a philanthropic corporation with a president and vice presidents of finance, marketing and pubic relations. Each vice-president lead a small group of students who took on a small aspect of the overall project. The financial group estimated how many penny jars would be needed to reach their goal and also counted the money that was received. The marketing group designed the jar labels on the computer and chose the slogan “Pennies for Puppies”. The public relations group wrote a form letter to local businesses asking for their permission to place the jars in their establishments.

In May, the students counted the money and had a discussion on how their results might be improved next year. The group raised $83.00 which was short of their goal of $300, but the process of raising the money allowed the students to use a wide variety of life skills including math, writing, strategic planning, leadership and teamwork.

Neighborhood Connections Improved
This year marked a major step forward in the Community Learning Center’s connections to the Hawthorne neighborhood by partnering with the Witherbee Neighborhood Association. The two groups have collaborated on several projects, including a neighborhood clean-up that resulted in over three dump truck sized loads of garbage being removed. This summer they are planning a neighborhood event to be held at a Lincoln Salt Dog baseball game. They also share representation at each other’s planning meetings and help each other in promoting their various programs and activities. While this relationship is still in its early stages, a strong foundation has been created and much greater thing are anticipated for the future.

C.M. and School’s Out
C.M. is a fourth grade student in the School’s Out program at Hawthorne Elementary School. C.M. is a very bright student who is well liked by other students in the program. In the past, C.M. had become known as a disruptive student who frequently encouraged other students to misbehave along with him. This year the staff at the School’s Out program decided to take a different approach to C.M.’s frequent behavior problems. Rather than compete with C.M. for the other student’s attention they decided to make him an ally.

The staff asked if C.M. had any ideas for educational projects that students could do. He told the staff that he was learning about volcano’s in school and thought that the other students would enjoy making a model volcano as a project. The staff let C.M. recruit several other students and provided the supplies needed to create the project. C.M. showed tremendous leadership skills and encouraged other students to understand the science behind volcanoes. After they had completed their project, they did a presentation to the rest of the students on how volcanoes work. The presentation influenced many other students to pursue similar project in a variety of subjects.

C.M. also play a key role in organizing a student talent show for parents. He played the role of the announcer and encouraged other students to display their various talents. The show was very well organized and was much appreciated by the parents. At the end of the program Jennifer, our lead teacher, got up in from of the group and thanked C.M. for all of his hard work and creativity. C.M. looked a little shocked that all of these people would be applauding him and it was obvious that he felt very proud of himself.

C.M.’s attitude in the School’s Out program has been wonderful ever since he started becoming more involved in leadership roles. It is clear that C.M. has discovered some new talents and hopefully he will continue to grow in the next year.

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