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Class studies homelessness
The Vindicator
Photo
Jaylyn Graves, a student at Mollie Kessler School in Youngstown, concentrates as she paints her birdhouse. Students at the school studied homelessness. The birdhouses will go to Habitat for Humanity.
The Vindicator
Photo
Mollie Kessler School students, from left, Paul Walker, Alex Ferguson and Natalie Rhinehart show off their finished birdhouses that they painted for Habitat for Humanity. The students studied homelessness in school.
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Students in Courtney Cruz’s class at Mollie Kessler School wanted to do something to help homeless people in the Mahoning Valley.
Cruz is in graduate school at Youngstown State University in addition to her teaching duties. As part of a class on service learning, she asked students to choose a “heart issue,” or something on which to focus to help the community.
“They voted, and they picked homelessness,” Cruz said.
Students collected food for the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley, visited that shelter and learned about the efforts of Habitat for Humanity.
The kids are too young to build a Habitat house, but they wanted to help.
“We’re painting birdhouses for Habitat,” said third-grader Natalie Rhinehart, 9. “They build houses for people.”
The agency is planting wildflowers and hanging birdhouses in a field behind its Restore store on Youngstown-Poland Road in Struthers. The children will help sow the wildflower seeds and paint birdhouses.
Eve Parteleno, an aide in the classroom, bought the birdhouses at a substantial discount from Bill Liggett of Bill’s Wood Shop in Edinburg, Pa.
“We donated candy and a little [stuffed] dog for the kids,” second-grader Ahniyah Cantrell, 7, said of the children at the Rescue Mission.
She talked about all of the beds at the shelter that were lined up in a room.
She, Natalie and Alex Ferguson, 8, also a second-grader, sat around a table in Cruz’s room Monday, decorating their birdhouses with bright colors and elaborate designs.
Second-grader Tyler Miller, 8, said he and his classmates picked homelessness as their heart issue “so we can help some homeless people.”
Joey Koziel, 8, and also in second grade, chose green, red, yellow, blue, purple and pink shades to adorn his masterpiece.
He said his class also donated Easter baskets to the children at the Rescue Mission shelter.
“They were all in school,” he said. “But when they came back, they got a nice surprise.”
Jaylyn Graves, 8, and in second grade, used a pencil eraser dipped in paint to create uniform dots around the entry of her birdhouse.
“We like donating toys, books and food,” she said.
Third-grader Xena Thomas, 8, hopes her birdhouse makes people happy.
The reason the class picked homelessness as an issue to study is simple, according to Paul Walker, 8, and also in second grade.
“I want everyone to have a home,” he said.