Park Forest, IL-(ENEWSPF)- On a snowy Friday morning in January, a group of Forest Trail School students and Cheryl Muench, Forest Trail co-principal, put on winter weather gear, grabbed snow shovels donated by the Park Forest Police Department and walked into the school’s surrounding neighborhood to shovel residents’ driveways and sidewalks. Area residents had signed up for the service to shovel away the winter’s snowfalls. The snow shoveling was just one of many community service projects that are under way at Forest Trail this school year.
“The community service projects teach the students that their involvement in the community makes the community stronger, and the projects instill a sense of responsibility in the students for the people around them,” said Ms. Muench. “While a number of students volunteer for the projects to earn graduation points, most of the students are engaged because they want to be. They want to help and they enjoy seeing the results of their efforts.”
More than 100 Forest Trail students are engaged in such community service projects as tutoring fellow students; assisting in the library, art room, or school offices; recycling; providing child care for the adult technology classes; snow shoveling; keeping the school litter-free; helping with an animal adoption program; working at the food pantry; working at child care centers; and acting as managers for the school’s sports teams.
“Community service is not new at Forest Trail,” noted Ms. Muench. “Our students have been involved in collecting food or funds for the Rich Township Food Pantry, worked with our EarlyAct Club to pack food for donation to needy countries, and helped teachers in a variety of ways. We just expanded our focus on community service and made more opportunities available to the students. This is part of their education and helps them to be well-rounded people.”
Art teacher Francesca Wessely has seventh grader Brooke Pair and eighth grader Adeola Johnson as art assistants for one hour per week after school. “Adeola and Brook help prepare artwork for display in the school. They perform tasks like matting artwork, removing and putting up artwork in the school halls, and sometimes taking photos of student art for documentation purposes. On occasion, one or both of them help wash paintbrushes or palettes at the end of the day, as well as organize materials. Having these two assistants has been great and allowed me to display student art on a more frequent rotation,” said Ms. Wessely.
