Interpersonal Skills Class Makes Personal Strides Toward Helping Others

It may only be May, but it felt like Christmas in Mr. Young's class on Tuesday night!

As part of the Interpersonal Skills class, Mr. Young always engages his students with the message of "paying it forward" in ways that help the community and those less fortunate than we are.  "Everyone has struggles," said Young, "but the question is:  Are mine greater than anyone else's?  By spending time, effort, and a little bit of money, we focus on other people's problems for a minute.  Truthfully, it makes ours look smaller by comparison."

This module, the Interpersonal Skills class partnered with Samaritan's Purse (www.samaritan.org) in anticipation of its annual shoebox outreach program, Operation Christmas Child (www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/).  The program, started many years back by Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, distributes donated gifts to children throughout the world who would otherwise go without gifts for Christmas. 

For class, each student brought with her, at least one shoebox, accompanied by a trove of other items, including: bars of soap, hair brushes, combs, small toys, crayons, markers, coloring books, story books, hard candy, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and the like.  Each box was then wrapped in decorative paper and filled with a variety of items, including a handwritten, personal note to the child who may receive the box this Christmas.  The students, excited about the project, were allowed to also bring their children to school for the two-hour window of time when the boxes were assembled.  "It is a great gift to pack a shoebox for a needy child.  It is even greater, however, to teach our own children the value of charity and giving," said Mr. Young.  "It doesn't get more 'interpersonal' than that."

Although the national collection week is from November 14 - November 21, 2011, this group of students is looking to involve the entire campus over the coming months to make an earth-shattering impact come November.  Beginning for the Spring B module, this group of students is throwing down the gauntlet and challenging the campus to participate with them to make this project a campus-wide event.  Each module, the students have developed a theme.  Should students be able to reach the set goals of each module, Mr. Young agreed to allow jeans during all of week 6 of each module - but only if the goals were reached.

Overall, the class was able to complete 31 boxes during the two-hour window of time.  It was a great time to see the many smiles of students and their children while participating.  A special thanks also to Mrs. Eifert and Ms. Wilshaw for their assistance.

Stay tuned for more exciting news from the Roseville campus!