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Jackson-Milton students plan festival for charity
By Denise Dick
LAKE MILTON
Sixteen sophomores from Jackson-Milton High School are giving back to the community and learning teamwork, public speaking and marketing along the way.
The students in Angeline Theis’ English class complete a service-learning project each year. This year’s class chose a Spring Festival for families from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at the school. Proceeds will go to the American Cancer Society and Noah’s Lost Ark, an exotic-animal sanctuary in Berlin Center.
“My goal for this is twofold,” Theis said. “First, it’s important to serve your community.”
Many teenagers may not think about that.
Secondly, the project demonstrates to students how language arts is something they’ll use outside of class.
As part of the project, the students wrote a memorandum to the school board, explaining the idea and requesting board support. Then, they presented their idea to board members and to Judy and Bruce Lazar, owners of V & V Appliances.
That presentation garnered a $325 donation from the company for supplies.
Students say it’s been a good experience, and they recommend it to their younger schoolmates.
“It’s not boring like regular school,” said Jesusita Linger, 16. “It’s something they should do because even if you fail, you get something out of it.”
Jenna Seka, 15, said the service learning offered real-life experience that students hadn’t been exposed to previously.
The students picked the event, chose the charities and divided into teams to plan the details and promote the festival.
Katie Rago, 16, said spreading the word about the event proved challenging. Students relied on social media, texts to their friends at other schools and the school’s website to get the information out.
The event includes carnival games such as ring toss, bowling and duck pond, a petting zoo with rabbits and chicks, a candy hunt, bake sale, pie-throwing contest and a three-on-three basketball tournament, said Heather Kirk, 16.
Ashley Williamson and Mayve Carpenter, both 16, will be the targets in the pie-throwing event.
“And there will be lots of food,” Tiffany Voland, 15, said. “Everyone likes food.”
Other than the candy hunt, all activities will be in the school gymnasium or cafeteria so weather won’t put a damper on festivities.
The basketball tournament is for people age 14 to 25, and there’s still time to register on the school’s website.
Chloe Maffei, 16, said it was challenging to plan all of the activities.
It involved making lists and ordering items from different vendors, said Maggie Garland, 16. Work started at the beginning of the school year.
Students had to learn how to work together too, said Eric Ostrowski, 16. That meant meeting in the middle if there was disagreement about how to get things done, he said.
Ashley Totani, 16, said she learned about the importance of community service and how to talk in public.
Presenting the project to the school board and the company owners taught students how to speak professionally, said Kaitlyn Totani, 16. She and Ashley are twins.
Linger said the class chose Noah’s Lost Ark as one of the beneficiaries of the festival because they wanted to help creatures that can’t speak for themselves.
Seka said they picked the American Cancer Society because they know people in the community who died from the disease.
Tiffany Obradovich, a fifth-grade teacher at Jackson-Milton, died from cancer in 2013, and the parents of Sean Bartek, a classmate, both died of the disease.
This marks the third year that Theis’ class has completed a service-learning project.
“As much as this community gives to the school — tax dollars — we want them to know our kids can give back,” Theis said.