Vincent Elementary School Students Gives to Others
The third through fifth intellectually gifted students at Vincent Elementary School have been learning about what it means to be a philanthropist. The students discovered that being a philanthropist is giving of one’s time, talent, and treasure for the benefit of others or for common good. They became really excited about being a philanthropist and discovered that in order to lead one must first serve others, especially those who are less fortunate than themselves! They collaborated and brainstormed to determine a worthy project to take on. After learning that the most requested item of people who are homeless is socks, they became excited about the possibility of conducting a school-wide sock drive over the next two weeks – concluding just before the Christmas break.
The students worked together to create a list of “to do” items along with a time line for completion and put the items in order. For example, the first item was requesting permission from Dr. Hudson to have a sock drive; they realized this had to be done prior to anything else. They also thought an incentive would motivate students to bring in more socks so they determined a pizza party would be just the motivation needed! Next on the list was setting a goal of how many pairs of socks to collect. After discussion, they set a goal of 100 pairs of socks! Notes were sent home, announcements were made, and our box for collecting socks was out the next day! After just a couple of days, the students had exceeded their goal! Ultimately, they collected over 1,000 pairs of socks – 1,363 pairs to be exact! The entire school and community worked together to accomplish our goal! The students partnered with a local charity, Shelby Baptist Association SBA), located in Columbiana, AL to donate the socks. Someone who has benefited from the services provided by SBA along with a representative from SBA will speak to the students and pick up the socks from Vincent Elementary.
The students have enjoyed being a philanthropist, having real world experiences, and using the soft skills of communication, decision making, leadership, teamwork, creativity, and problem solving throughout this experience. They have learned that they can be a leader by first serving and that no matter how young someone is he or she can give back to others and be a leader by serving!