Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Something Wonderful

Like most bloggers-come-lately, or even bloggers-come-at-the-beginning-of-this-whole-trend-giving-them-the-right-to-be-oldschool, I'm creating this blog as I'm creating a new chapter in my life.

What better way to begin anew than with something wonderful?  I (currently) work in a public high school as a school psychologist.  High schoolers are some of my favorite people with whom to work.  They're not exactly sure who they are but they aren't going to give up until they've got it all figured out.  High schoolers are the Thursday morning of life.  It's not the weekend yet, but you can see it from here.

This morning we had a school-wide assembly.  It's my first year with this school so most of what goes on is new to me.  Apparently this is SPUD week.  SPUD stand for Students Performing Unselfish Deeds.  The students at my school are attempting to raise SIXTY THOUSAND dollars this week for two members of our public school community who are fighting leukemia.  SIXTY THOUSAND dollars.

Our assembly this morning had singing, dancing, a touching audio-visual presentation about the two individuals in question, pirate battles (really), rock music and clique-ish tomfoolery.  It was entirely student run.  At the end of the assembly, several students went through the crowd with plastic buckets asking for donations to kick off SPUD week.  They collected over $2,000 in just over 5 minutes.  Granted, we have 2200 students, but that is some serious start-up money.

This entire week will revolve around fundraisers cleverly disguised as tantalizing events highschoolers will pay to attend.  And every penny will go toward their $60K goal.

I'm both energized and humbled watching this gaggle of teenagers tap into the awesome power of collective action, and turn that power toward GOOD.  Next time you're despairing for the fate of humanity, come see me and I'll give you a tour if SPUD week.  It'll fix you right up.

Yarn content later.  Teenager admiring now.

Now with pictures of how the kids transformed the school into neverland for the week.  The last photo (of mermaid lagoon) is taken from the door to my office.  Isn't it beautiful?

Lost Boys Tree House.  I love the trees.  The figures are all painted freehand.

Capturing Tiger Lily.  The rocks and trees are in 3-D.

Pirates!  Can you just make out the lost boys tied to the mast?

Pixie Hollow.  Every "leaf" on that tree in individually set into a chickenwire outline.  There are thousands of them!


And, my favorite, Mermaid Lagoon!



UPDATE ****  When all was said and done, our illustrious group of teenage fundraisers ended up with over $70K.  Yes, you read that correctly: over SEVETY thousand dollars.  Fully TEN GRAND more than they'd hoped.  Go hug a high schooler.