Vincent Elementary School Students Lead by Serving!!!

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!

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