April Schumacker’s Grade 2-3 class at Brookside Public School learned important lessons over the school year as they participated in the Who is NOBODY? program. It taught them that helping people is important.
Who is NOBODY? An initiative, which sees a cardboard suitcase containing a non-descript denim doll, a how-to DVD, karaoke CD, study guide and other supplementary materials delivered to classrooms.
Displaying their Who is NOBODY doll before they customized it in their own unique way are the students from April Schumacker s Grade 2-3 class. Front row: (L to R), Erika Gibson, Rory
Students take turns working on charitable or community-building projects of their own choosing, which they then present to their classmates. The students then add features such as clothing to the doll to reflect the work they did, slowly turning NOBODY into somebody who reflects their own interests and who they helped over the school year.
The Grade 2-3 Brookside Class learned the importance of kindness in the following ways:
“We learned that helping people who don’t have toys, money, food or homes and helping them to get stuff they need makes us happy. It puts a lot of smiles on children’s faces,” said Tori Cutting and Colleen Nivins.
“Collecting rain water is important because it could help the environment by watering plants. Going to the nursing home also makes a seniors day. Going to a turkey farm to feed the turkeys help the livestock,” said Brody Brindley and Michelle Angst.
If everybody helped the environment they would have a great place because it wouldn't be full of garbage all over the Earth— Sophia Bos, grade 3
“If everybody helped the environment they would have a great place because it wouldn’t be full of garbage all over the Earth. The Earth would be healthy if all the garbage was gone and everybody would like that, like picking up cans, collecting rainwater and reusing old toys,” said Sophia Bos and Rory Parish.
“It is important for nobody to become a somebody because it will help the environment when people clean up the litter. It will help people like when we did the spook swap and reused costumes instead of throwing them out,” said Sarah Wight and Scott Berry.
These are just some of the important things the students learned and did over the course of the year. Shumacker said it just amazing what some of the students are capable of doing when motivated to help others.
Some 25,000 students have already taken part in Who is NOBODY? at schools across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. For more information on the program visit www.whoisnobody.com.
This article was published in The Lucknow Sentinel Newspaper on July 14th 2011
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