It's not every day that you and your students get the opportunity to make an impact, so we were very excited at Evergreen Elementary when we were contacted to host a "Change Our World" kickoff event.
Our school is located in
On January 17, 2008, Gene White, President of Global Child Nutrition Foundation, and Mary Begalle, National Marketing Manager—School Foodservice and Pat McCoy, Vice President School Foodservice, from Schwan’s Food Service, Inc., visited our school and spoke to the students about “Change Our World” and GCNF.
First, our students watched the “Neenah Makes a Difference” video, which made them sit up and take notice.
After the video Mr. Graham, our principal, got the students excited about the assembly and introduced our great speakers for the day.
Gene did a great job explaining to the students that there are many children around the world who do not have the opportunities we take for granted—going to school every day and having a nutritious meal while we are here.
She told the students that GCNF is working to end global child hunger by creating self-sustaining school nutrition programs in communities that have none.
After Gene spoke, Pat got the students excited about the “Change Our World” campaign, telling them how each small donation adds up and makes a difference.
After Pat talked to the students, Mrs. Benavidez, our physical education teacher, grabbed a bright red plastic fireman’s helmet and began passing it around. The students were so excited that they quickly helped fill the helmet.
When it reached the front of the room, our principal, Mr. Graham, placed $20 in the helmet and challenged me to match it. When I opened my wallet, I only had $5, which turned out to be great because we were able to turn the challenge into a mini math quiz, asking the students how much I needed to bring the next day to match Mr. Graham.
They were right when they said $15.
Our school isn’t done yet. We want to see what kind of difference we can make for GCNF before January is over. On Tuesday, January 29, 2008, we are building the largest pizza in our community by having the students toss coins into a circle to represent pizza toppings and we have another challenge for our students.
Each time a student makes a donation, their name goes on a donation coin that is put on the wall in the gym. The challenge to our students is if they can make the coins reach all the way around the gym, they get to have a Disney Day, where they can dress up as their favorite character. At the assembly, Mr. Graham and I will wear Disney ties and have students cut them off in celebration of their efforts.
As of January 25, 2008, we have nearly reached our goal of donating $1,100 to deserving children around the world. What an honor to join efforts with schools and other organizations across
I would like to thank Gene White, president of Global Child Nutrition Foundation, and Mary Begalle, Pat McCoy, and Bonnie Conger from Schwan’s Food Service, Inc. along with Lincoln Pierce, our Child Nutrition Director, for this unique opportunity.
It was humbling to see how quickly our staff, students, and community rallied to the aid of less fortunate children around the world! We learned that when we donated our change in an effort to change the world, a far greater change took place in our own hearts!
It’s our hope that our students have learned that by working together, we can all make a difference.
Jay Brower
Assistant Principal
Evergreen Elementary
