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Leaders 'R' Us Student Council Workshops Success Stories I just wanted to let you know what wonderful leaders you are helping us to produce. After we attended your workshop the kids had several wonderful ideas. One of the things that we wrapped up on Friday was a collection for the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley. The STUCO members organized a .99 cent drive. We asked each student in the school to bring in .99 cents over the course of a week. All of the money would be donated to the Food Bank. Do you know that Rita and I lugged over $1,300 worth of ones and change to the credit union on Friday? Is that not truly amazing? I think that is a huge amount of money for a group of elementary school kids to raise in only a week. The really coolest part is that 95% of our student body is on free or reduced meals. Even though a lot of our families have needs of their own they still thought about others. I guess that is what makes me love Student Council so much. What a blessing to me. Thank you again for helping to get our kids going and off on the right foot. There is no telling what other goals we will be able to meet and set this year!Dawn Burbach GT Teacher/STUCO Advisor Bonham Elementary Fisher Elementary is taking on a new slogan. We are wanting to be known for being a "giving" school. In addition to all the other student council fund-raises we do through the year, each grade level has revamped their Winter Parties around being this "giving" school. Instead of presents for classmates, or an exchange of some sort (like a book swap), each grade level chooses an article of clothing that all students will donate. Kinder will do mittens, 1st will do socks, etc. We display those items on a laundry line for all the school to see how much we have collected. We started this last year and the giving worked it's way into the Valentines Party as well. 5th grade students choose not to do a craft but had parents donate cups and candy which they filled at their party. These cups were donated to local charities such as Frisco Families and other area resources. Holidays are a time for giving and we want our students to feel comfortable with sharing what they have then wondering how much they will get. We are hoping that this will continue as we as a school grow. Jennifer King Frisco ISD Carolyn, "Is it almost over? It went too fast!!" Rubie Carrasco, a student from Ben Milam Elementary in Midland. Rubie attended the Leaders 'R' Us Workshop in Midland on Nov. 2, 2006 I am writing you from H.P. Webb Elementary School in Olton, TX. Last year was our first year to have a 5th grade student council. We sponsored a penny drive to help a girl from another district receive a liver transplant. Our parent organization volunteered to give the winning grade level a movie/popcorn party. We were amazed at the response from our little elementary school! We delivered a check for over $1200 to the girl (that was from our elementary campus alone, and all in coins!). The girl, by the way, received her liver on Christmas Day--what a gift! Keri
Inman Carolyn, At the beginning of the second semester of this school year Miles Elementary school was dealt a tragedy. One of our 5th grade students was killed in a house fire at a local dairy. This greatly impacted our school and community. Our Student Council immediately went to work to raise money and basic necessities for the family. The Student Council at Irion County Elementary joined our efforts. At a varsity basketball game hours after the funeral the two organizations made a presentation in honor of the family. The Irion County Students brought numerous boxes of supplies and donated $2,000 to the family. Combined the two organization's came together in the true spirit of Student Council. Most recently, the Miles Student Council planted a tree in memoriam of the student on the playground.
We are very
proud of the students from both schools.
Sincerely
yours,
Jamie Rouse
Miles
Elementary S.C. Advisor
Thanks for all your help Carolyn! This is truly our first year to have an "active" student council. We are still getting things up and running. We have held monthly meetings and helped with several community projects. We had a Hurricane Katrina family come to our school. Our students had buckets and signs outside each morning for parents to donate to as they dropped their kids off. We made over $300.00 dollars to help them buy household items for their new apartment. During October which was adopt a shelter pet month, we decided just to adopt the local shelter instead. Students brought food and supplies and some parents donated money to help our local shelter with their needs. We recently had a canned food drive to help replinish our local food pantry. The food pantry was able to help many families over the holidays and their cubbards were almost bare. Our student council wanted a pajama day so we took the idea to our principal. Students that wanted to wear pajamas were asked to bring $1.00. Proceeds will go toward upgrading/updating our sound system in the cafeteria so our programs can be even better. We made over $200.00 on that alone. Thanks Stacey Kluttz -Davis Elementary Our Student Council conducts every Spirit Rally. The STUCO Officers write the script (with a little assistance from me) and decide what we will do. The officers introduce teachers who announce the awards, lead the student body in the Pledges and cheers or songs (we have changed some of the words to fit Mockingbird). The STUCO Representatives sit in front of the class they represent to assist by making sure the students know when to sit, stand, and/or participate. Our parents and faculty were blown away after the first Spirit Rally. A short time later, the STUCO Officers led the Veteran's Day Assembly in which Mockingbird's recently retired principal, Mr. Mac, was honored. Now, everyone just expects our student leaders to do a great job. The STUCO has also made numerous signs and posters as well as spearheading a contest to encourage students to bring Box Tops for Education. All of that has been wonderful, but what they did Friday took the cake. We had a "suspicious" phone call Friday morning and evacuated the student body to the middle school next door. Although they were not scared, students knew that this was not a planned evacuation. After I made sure our building was clear I joined the students in the gym. I called the STUCO Officers together and told them it was time for a pep rally. I told them to lead the students in a couple of yells and songs and was not even able to finish telling them what I needed when I was called to go back to my campus to answer some questions for the police officers. I just left the STUCO Officers on their own. They gave the signal to get the student body quiet and got over 500 students so involved that they were no longer anxious about what was happening. By the time I got back, the middle school choir was brought in to sing. The choir went back to class so we had a huge sing along going on. We were singing one of the songs and I looked up and lo and behold, here came the officers. They got together and wanted to do "Boom Chicka Boom". We got this e-mail from one of our parents: "M_____ came home and thought it was the "funnest" day ever. They got to be so loud in the gym at CMSE that he thinks the middle schoolers definitely knew they were there! He had no idea that it was a scary situation." I guess all of this is to say that, yes, these students have great leadership abilities and they are incredibly creative and are always coming to me with new ideas. However, there is no way we could have developed this phenomenal leadership team had it not been for the Leaders "R" Us training! The Mockingbird Student Council Officers bonded in such a way that it has had a profound positive impact on our school. Pam Mitchell - Coppell ISD Goodman Elementary Student Council Events
What a lovely time my students and I had at the Leaders "R" Us workshop! You made it very enjoyable for the students. Thank you for your efforts to enrich the lives of the students and advisors. I had a great time as well. Janet Adams - Hudson PEP The Jackson-Roosevelt Elementary participates in many activities during the year. Our most rewarding is a food drive at Thanksgiving. The Student Council heads up a class by class food drive. Last year our school collected enough food to feed 70 families. Roy Zengerle - Calhoun County ISD Floresville Elementary Student Council Hurricane Katrina Penny Drive Hurricane Katrina has been the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico. This has been a major weather event with widespread flooding, power outages, and catastrophic damage. That is why Floresville Elementary is proud to contribute to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Please join us by donating to the FES Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Penny Drive. Donations may be sent as change, cash, or checks. Please make checks payable to Floresville Elementary. The community may also donate to the FES Penny Drive by dropping off donations at the Floresville Elementary School Office. We had over $2,500 to send to Red Cross. Thanks for your support! Floresville Elementary Student Council - Building a Community of Character Our Student Council had a "Turkey Drive" for Thanksgiving with a goal of 30 turkeys and we nearly doubled our goal! They helped organize a "Food Drive" to resupply the shelves of the San Antonio Food Bank following the Holidays. We used the theme of the Super Bowl, and set up a football field on the stage and students brought in canned goods and other supplies and placed them on the "field" of the team of their choice. We also collected school supplies for our Sister School, and our student council members brought the supplies to the Sister School during a P.T.A. Parent Support Night. They really did their part to provide a service to our San Antonio Community. They assisted in Flag Ceremonies and were excellent role models for our school. We were very proud of their efforts.
Catherine
Wood, Amanda Isaac
Blattman
Elementary
Here at Barbers Hill Intermediate School in Mont Belvieu, our student council members are leading the way for the newly enrolled "hurricane refugees" by acting as the official welcome wagon for our school. Student Council representatives have been assigned to new students to act as mentors. They will be helping our new students by showing them around the buildings, introducing them to others, helping them to get organized, and helping out with class assignments as well as homework. So far, we have enrolled 4 new fifth grade students and 8 new sixth grade students. We are also planning to have our new council members work next week at a nearby community church which is acting as a clothing depot. Sorting as well as labeling the incoming articles of clothing will be a few of the duties these big hearted students will perform during after school hours. We are very proud of all of our students here at Barbers Hill Intermediate, not just our council, as everyone is opening their hearts to take the time and make the room during this very difficult time in the lives of our new students. Barbers Hill Intermediate School Student Council, Barbers Hill ISD "This past fall I attended a StuCo workshop that you presented in Rosharon, TX. This was an excellent workshop and our school now has a strong, hard working Student Council made up of 4th graders. I still pull out my materials from the workshop and look over them weekly for ideas for my students. They have loved everything thus far. The third graders coming up are very excited about their election in May for next school year's council. We would love to have you come to the Brazosport area this fall and hold a workshop to share all the incredible information you have available for those already with councils and those who wish to begin new ones." Sandra Consilio Jane Long Elementary "We have a student Council at our elementary school. The officers are fourth and fifth graders. Our representatives are students in grades two-five. We were very proud of our student Council last school year. The kids really put an emphasis on helping others. One of our teacher's husband was stationed in Iraq last year. Our STUCO kids organized a collection. They had students on our campus donate items for goodie boxes for the soldiers. The response was tremendous! We received so many things that we filled up ten large shipping boxes. We learned later that the boxes really made some of the soldiers' days. The next project that the Council took on was raising money for the Red Cross for the Tsunami Relief Fund. Again, STUCO kids really encouraged everyone to participate and did a great job of raising awareness. Our Elementary school ended up raising about $750.00 for the American Red Cross. Most of it was in pennies! The kids thought that at the end of the year, we had done a lot for people, but what about animals? So, they started a drive for the Humane Society. In the end we not only raised money for the HS. but received donations of food, bedding and other supplies.
I think
that our Student Council did an amazing job last year of
raising the awareness on our campus for others, both two
legged and four legged. We were very proud to work with
such wonderful and giving kids."
Thank you,
Dawn
Burbach
Rita
Galloway
Student
Council Advisors
Bonham
Elementary
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