Melissa Stockbrugger-Knaus hopes she teaches her 7th grade kids the usual classroom things.
But she also hopes she is teaching her kids how to make a difference in the world.
The St. Augustine food drive was school wide but Stockbrugger-Knaus’s class brought in the most food. On Nov. 5, it was all weighed and delivered to the Humboldt Food Bank with help from Discovery Ford.
As well as kids bring in donations from home, which amounted to 771 kilograms of food, half of the grade 7 students trick-or-treated for even more food donations which added another 120 kilograms to their total.
St. Augustine’s school dance for the grade 6-8 students made more donation opportunities available with the option of students paying part of the admission fee with a food bank donation.
For Stockbrugger-Knaus’s class, their doing more than just local food drives.
Stockbrugger-Knaus has partnered with Free the Children for the past four years to encourage her kids to get involved with the global community. Free the Children asks that local initiatives be apart of the classes efforts.
“This was our main local one and then we will be doing some other projects through the year to support global issues.”
On Nov. 20, Stockbrugger-Knaus and her class will not speak for 24 hours and collect pledges for the We Are Silent campaign to support children around the world who do not have a voice.
“We talked about it as a class and we decided that we would like to support education in Haiti and so any money that we will raise through We Are Silent will go for that.”
Throughout the year, there will be other initiative on behalf of Free the Children that Stockbrugger-Knaus and her kids will be taking part in.
Stockbrugger-Knaus says that her class is also discussing local initiatives that are not fundraisers but things that would help the community. Right now, they are discussing shoveling snow for seniors or visiting at the Villa but nothing is concrete yet.
Stockbrugger-Knaus says that she only partners her grade 7 students with Free the Children but sometimes the Student Leadership Council (SLC) also gets involved with the events and fundraising that goes on.
The SLC is sponsoring a child in Kenya, which counts towards their Free the Children goals. They support fundraising initiative that are not through countries or charities that they serve, as well.
“When we support global initiatives, they don’t have to be through the communities where they work. They are very happy to see us supporting other causes in the world as well.”
Stockbrugger-Knaus wants her kids to learn that they can make a difference in the world and that they, “have a lot of power in using their voice, using their talents to create change in our local world and beyond.”
Stockbrugger-Knaus hopes her kids take this beyond the classroom, especially in later life.
