Washington students ‘Paying it Forward’

Nick Johansen

The Red Oak Express

Three classes at Washington Intermediate are sharing in grant funds to help in the Red Oak community.

The classes of Sonia Kunze, Sue Chelsvig, and Jacki Viner each submitted applications for the funding to the Realtor Foundation of Iowa’s “Project Jack” program, named in memory of Jack Lindaman, who passed away in 2010 at age 6. The project gives fourth and fifth graders the opportunity to pay it forward in any way the class chooses.

Fourth grade instructor Sonia Kunze said the program was discovered by Viner, who shared the details with principal Gayle Allensworth, who then relayed the information to Kunze and the other instructors. Kunze said the decision for a project was a joint effort between her and her students.

“My students and I discussed many volunteer opportunities in our community, but ultimately we decided to donate to the food pantry,” Kunze said.

The work the food pantry does to help out in the community, Kunze said, was a major factor in choosing it as their project.

“We liked the fact that it helps people who need help. My students know people who use our local food pantries and felt it was a place that could use our help,” commented Kunze.

Now that the grant has been awarded, Kunze said they’re working to get the grant funds put to good use.

“I contacted Lois Trinity at the Community Food Pantry, and asked if she would rather we buy groceries that they need or if it was better for the Food Pantry to purchase the food and then we help unload the bags and get things up on shelves and organized. Mrs. Trinity indicated she would prefer to buy the groceries herself and have us come and unload the bags and put things up on the shelves. We will visit the Community Food Pantry in early April to stock and organize the shelves,” Kunze said.

Fourth grade instructor Sue Chelsvig said, like Kunze, she was informed of the program by principal Allensworth. For their project recipient, her class chose the Red Oak Grand Theatre.

“The movie theater often opens their doors to us for special shows. We thought this would be a great way to give back to the movie theater,” commented Chelsvig.

Chelsvig said their next step is to decide on a project that will be the biggest benefit to the theater.

“We are still working out final details as to when we will visit the theater as well as what work will make the greatest impact while we are there,” said Chelsvig.

Fifth grade instructor Jacki Viner said she heard about the project through a colleague at another school and decided to take part.

“I found out about Project Jack from a friend of mine, Debra Robertson, a 5th grade teacher at East Mills. Her husband, Danny Robertson, is a realtor and suggested that my class start brainstorming an idea to get the students involved with something bigger than themselves,” commented Viner.

The idea for the project her class chose came from seeing a similar project done by Iowa Hawkeyes football players.

“We have some major college football fans in our class and we discuss it often. When the University of Iowa fans and players all did the “wave” to the kids at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital during their football game this fall, my students had so much to say about it,” Viner said. “They thought it was so cool that the whole stadium of fans would turn and focus on those kids and families that weren’t well enough to be out there cheering on their Hawkeyes. We had tossed around the idea of making our own “wave” video and sending it to them, but didn’t really do anything with it. When I presented Project Jack to my class, it was no surprise that this was one of their ideas. When we voted, it was unanimous.”

Viner said her class plans to put together a similar video to support the kids at the Iowa Children’s Hospital.

“Our class has decided to donate the $250 to the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. In addition to the monetary donation, the students are making “Good Day” cards for the staff to give to kids at the hospital who may be having a rough day, a tough procedure coming up, or just need something to put a smile on their face. We will also make our “wave” video and send the link in each card. The students have taken so much ownership over this project and it makes my heart soar to see how thoughtful they are being to kids they will never know,” said Viner.

The students in Viner’s class are putting together cards, and Viner said they are anxious to get started on the video.