Civic+Responsibility+Results

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They collected easy, medium, and hard level books so they feel that these books would reach Kindergarten-5th grade children at this school.
 * 4Paws ** helps dogs and cats in need. 4Paws makes books about how to be a responsible pet owner for both cats and dogs. This organization sends these books to pet adoption organizations like Open Doors Animal Sanctuary and the Humane Society. When someone adopts a cat or dog, they are asking these organizations to send home these booklets with the new pet owner to help them “raise the perfect pet.” They also collected 40 towels and blankets to donate to Open Doors Animal Sanctuary. 4Paws helped over 200 dogs and cats.
 * Siberian Tiger Savers ** wants to help endangered Siberian Tigers. Their organization researches the type of paper a place uses to find out if it is 100% recycled and FSC certified. FSC certification ensures that no trees were cut down from forests that are homes to endangered species. Siberian Tiger Savers found out that the paper being used at MICDS is not 100% recycled and does not have full FSC certification. They found two papers that were 100% recycled and FSC certified that were close in cost to what the school currently pays. They then made a recommendation to the Head of the Lower School to see if she might change the paper our school uses currently to a more environmentally responsible paper that would also help to protect endangered species around the world.
 * Alumni vs. Bullying (A vs. B) ** wants to help stop bullying at our school. This organization put together an anti-bullying club. They created a commercial to excite people to join their club. Their organization has organized lesson plans for 4 days. They will hold a 4-day learning session that will include games, plays, videos to watch and stories to learn about how to stop bullying. At the end, the members will become “alumni” and have the tools to not be bullied or to stop bullying if they see it happening.
 * Clean Globe ** wants to help stop littering around our school. Their organization created a Littering PSA about why you should not litter and what you can do to stop littering with a catchy phrase, “just punch out trash.” They conducted an experiment over two days. The first day they observed the cafeteria and tallied the different types of trash they found on the ground during the 1st and 2nd grade lunch period. Clean Globe then went into each classroom and talked to them about littering and showed them their Littering PSA. They also put up posters about littering around the school and in the cafeteria. The following day they did a second observation to see if there was less trash on the floor. The group found that the number of pieces of trash on the floor was ½ as much as the first day. They concluded that raising awareness by showing a PSA about littering helped kids not to litter as much.
 * BT’s ** helps collect books and toys for poor kids who might not have a lot of books and toys. This organization had a book drive and collected close to 500 books. BT’s will be donating these books to North Side Community School. This school had asked for book donations since each classroom does not have a lot of books for the children to read.
 * Hospital Helpers ** helps sick kids who are in the hospital. Their organization wants to help make sick kids days a little happier. They created a coloring book for boys and girls. They held a crayon drive and collected over 900 crayons. They split up the crayons and put them into 112 bags. They are donating 112 coloring books and sets of crayons to St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
 * Home for the Hungry ** helps homeless adults and kids. They wanted to raise awareness about homelessness, especially homeless children. They made posters that they put around the school with facts about homeless children. They spoke to different grades about what they learned and read a story to younger grades. Home for the Hungry created a website to help people learn about Gateway 180. They will also be part of a marketing campaign by Gateway 180 to help continue to raise awareness about homelessness.
 * Homeless Helpers ** helps collect food for homeless families. They made posters and held a food drive lasting a week. They made phone calls to the food bank to set up the food drive. They created a website and business cards. They wrote a fictional story describing the problem of homeless families who don’t have enough to eat that they will share with local agencies. They collected 171 cans and boxes of food totaling 166 pounds that they donated to the St. Louis Area Food Bank.
 * Tanning Knockout ** works to teach people about the dangers of tanning and ultimately to stop people from tanning. They made posters that they hung up over town. They called four different tanning salons to find out how many people tan at that salon per day. After the posters had been up for a few days they called the same salons back to see if the number of tanners had gone down. It did! 196 less people tanned including one 8th grader at MICDS. They wrote a fictional story describing the problem of tanning (with a teleporting Russian crab) that they will share with local agencies.
 * Stray Dog Heroes ** work to educate people about how to stop stray dogs from occurring by being better pet owners. They contacted shelters and veterinarians to find out information about this problem. They went to Open Doors Animal Shelter to learn about microchip ID systems and what Open Doors does for animals. They then held a class at school. Over a dozen people attended their class on how to take care of your dog. They donated $50 to Open Doors. They also wrote a fictional story describing the problem of stray dogs that they will share with local agencies.
 * Animal Magic ** worked to enrich the lives of homeless pets by making cat and dog toys to entertain those pets while they are in the shelter. They held a class during their recess time for students and adults to come and make cat and dog toys. They donated over $100 to Open Doors, 300+ cans of cat food, 34 dog toys and 56 cat toys. They wrote a fictional story describing the problem of homeless pets that they will share with local agencies.
 * Energy Experts ** educated people about how they can waste less energy. They created a checklist of things that people can do that would reduce energy consumption. They changed 35 lives as 35 people brought the checklists back. They contacted multiple resources to collect this information. They wrote a nonfiction story describing the problem of wasting energy that they will share with local agencies.
 * Toy Team Extreme ** collects toys for children in need. They created posters and fliers to promote their cause. They organized a toy drive and will be delivering the toys they collected to the Salvation Army. They collected 106 toys! They wrote a fictional story describing the problem of children who do not have enough toys to play with that they will share with local agencies.
 * Paper’s Precious ** works to reduce the amount of paper that people use by teaching people how to better use paper in their lives. They networked with four resources to help them tackle this problem. They learned how to collect data on the amount of paper that each grade level uses by running a report on the amount of paper printed from each printer. They then spoke to four classrooms and shared with them how much paper they had printed. In these four classroom they posted signs, written on reclaimed paper, over the printer with tips to reduce the number of papers printed.
 * Litter Helpers ** educate people on the dangers of litter and pick up litter in parks and their neighborhood. They made promotional materials and were stunned by what they learned through research about how long it takes Styrofoam and plastic to decompose. They saved over a million years of decomposing because they picked up over 20 pieces of litter at parks and in their neighborhood.


 * // What the students had to say about the project: //**
 * “I never knew we could help the community in such a way!” **


 * “I learned some new stuff. I liked writing, making posters and collecting toys.” **


 * “I liked how we did phone calls and made a graph.” **


 * “I liked how hard it was because I liked doing challenges.” **


 * “I liked setting different goals and meetings which weren’t too easy or to hard. I also like how I helped out the community.” **


 * “I felt like that I was doing something that would make a huge difference. I only thought you had to be old to something like this.” **


 * “I have never been so surprised and proud of what I can do until today.” **


 * “It feels really good to make a difference. In the beginning it feels like the whole world is depending on you. In the end it feels like the whole world is congratulating you. That is a really good feeling.” **


 * “After you make a difference in the community, you feel like you can do anything. You feel really brave and loyal to your community. It feels more like you live there. Its your way of giving back.” **