LYNNKIRK ELEMENTARY Pupils' mission: Treating others

A lesson in pie-making was also a lesson in being a responsible member of a community.
AUSTINTOWN -- Take a few dozen eggs, sugar, condensed milk, spices and pie filling and add about 80 7- and 8-year-olds and what do you think you will get?
No, not a mess. In fact, what the second-grade teachers at Lynnkirk Elementary School expected is exactly what they got: nearly 110 pumpkin pies made by their pupils and destined for meals to be served at the Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley this holiday season.
For about nine years, the second-grade teachers at the school have been getting their pupils to prepare the pies for the less fortunate.
"The students shopped for the ingredients at Rulli Bros. and did chores at home to raise the money," said Jackie Burgan, a second-grade teacher helping to organize the mass-baking event. Also contributing pupils were the other second-grade teachers at Lynnkirk: Karen Parsons, Barbara Dellesky and Kim Camacci.
"We've been doing this for about nine years," Burgan said. "And Rulli's helped us by donating some gift certificates."
The pupils also pitched in quite a bit, she said, and pooled their chores money to help buy the makings for the pies. The pupils even went shopping for the baking goods at the local grocery store near the school on Kirk Road.
Burgan added that teachers and pupils discussed the lessons of the pie-making day before they began.
"We talked with the students about being a member of a community," Burgan said. "We talked about learning to give back to a community and we talked about the rescue mission, and that there are sometimes a lot of kids there and that sometimes they might get the only meal they eat there."
She added that the Lynnkirk pupils also discussed wish lists and needs.
"We told them that everyone has a wish list but that food, a bed, blanket or a toothbrush usually wasn't one of those wishes," she said. "We told them how they might be fortunate, but that there were some others who weren't."
What they learn
Burgan said the sum of the project was that the pupils learn how to become members of their community.
The making of the pies Wednesday took the pupils about two hours from start to baking, and was surprisingly neat and tidy given the number of children involved and the messiness of the ingredients.
Organized into work groups, the pupils lined up at tables with children designated as egg breakers, sugar measurers, milk pourers and spice dumpers.
From there bowl buddies transported the unmixed pie filling to the mixing table, where other children beat the contents into uncooked pumpkin pie filling.
The next step
Next they took the filling to the pouring table, where pre-cooked pie shells were filled and stacked onto trays. PTA room parents and teachers then transported the pies to the kitchen where the school's cooking staff watched over the treats as they cooked.
In the controlled mayhem of the pie assembly line, the well-behaved and diligent pupils added a bit of excitement and sweetness to the pies.
Some pupils explained how they raised the $3 that each second-grader contributed to the ingredients pool.
"I read chapter books," said Kala Dehoff. "And one of them even had six chapters."
Miriah Ballmer said she helped out too. "I fed my dog, Shane."
Brandin Hardin said he cleaned up the living room for his family.
Jamil Cheeley had a long list of his activities: "I cleaned my cousin's basement and my neighbor's attic and I washed dishes for my mom."
Ninety-nine of the 107 pies made Tuesday will be delivered to the rescue mission on Glenwood sometime this week, to be served to the less fortunate during dinners and at the mission's Christmas party for those who stay there. A few of the pies were kept at the school so the children could sample their efforts.