Students in the Eastland-Fairfield Career and Technical School District practice the principal of "It is better to give than receive" with needy and special needs children on the receiving end of myriad fundraising efforts.
A Madison Township emergency squad was filled to overflowing with bags of toys collected by electrical lab students as part of the Firefighters for Kids Toy Drive.
Center Director Deb Stephenson said students collected a record-breaking 191 new toys, but she was unaware Firefighter John Jones would make the trek across the street to collect the toys with lights blazing.
"I looked out and saw the squad in front of the center and thought there was an emergency," Stephenson told the school board at its Dec. 19 meeting. "I went out to see what was going on and the kids were loading up the squad with the toys they collected."
Electrical tech students also sponsored a Bowl-a-Thon and raised $1,300 for the Red Cross. Stephenson said Business Professionals of America organizations at both centers conducted successful "Chain of Love" fund drives benefiting Fairfield County Special Olympics. Eastland center BPA students collected $2,200 and their Fairfield center counterparts collected $1,500.
Special Olympians from Lancaster’s General Sherman Junior High School spent the day at Fairfield to kick off the "One Step" campaign for Special Olympics. Students visited labs and shared information about Special Olympics as students and staff shared basic skills and information about the labs.
Habla Espanol?
Jon Saxton, director of Curriculum and Instruction, said Eastland-Fairfield Spanish instructor Bob Largmann is interested in providing an opportunity for teachers in lab classes to take a once-a-week, half-hour class to learn simple Spanish.
"The thinking is Bob could provide some general instruction about how some simple conversational Spanish could be useful in various career fields," Saxton said in his report. "With the increasing number of Spanish-speaking folks in the United States, these skills might be very useful and make students increasingly marketable as prospective employees.
"Mr. Largmann is offering to work with one teacher at each building during the 2008-09 school year. If students would be interested, he could also enroll them in an independent study Spanish course for credit. We are also looking at other ways we could provide students with Spanish credit by investigating alternative instructional delivery methods. The initial response to this idea from lab teachers has been very favorable."
