Service Activities of the 7th Grade
by Mr. Robert Nickle
April 14, 2008
On April 8, 2008, the 7th grade class took a service field trip to the San Antonio Food Bank and to the San Antonio Animal Shelter. The students took donations to each facility based on stated needs from the staff of the facility. Students were provided tours of each facility and given the opportunity to contribute their time and effort toward the successful execution of the mission of the facility.
At the Animal Shelter, students were involved in a variety of activities supporting the work of the shelter. Those activities included landscape maintenance on the exterior grounds, and maintenance of the animal exercise yards on the interior operational areas. The exercise area maintenance involved removing excess weed barrier material and recovering the area with pea gravel. When the surface area of the exercise yard was renewed, a number of the dogs were brought out to exercise while the students were present. Some of the students were allowed to be dog handlers to insure that the animals were active while outside. At the end of the exercise period, the students cleaned up the area once again.
Some students were randomly selected, in small groups, to perform a variety of tasks within the shelter. Those tasks included bathing dogs, reproducing pamphlets in the office, walking animals, moving kittens from cage to cage, cleaning cages, and running errands for the office staff. All these activities were closely monitored by volunteer and full time employees of the shelter.
The students were also given a tour of the entire facility with explanations of the function of different buildings. A tour of the on site veterinarian clinic was included, and we were able to observe a procedure on an animal whereby a dog was implanted with an identification micro chip. A briefing on the necessity for the euthanasia of animal was provided, as well as the opportunity to view a videotape on a local program to implant identification micro chips in animals in the San Antonio area.
At the Food Bank, the students delivered their donations of canned goods and nonperishable items. They were then involved in a role playing activity regarding “How to feed your family on a budget.” The budget activity quickly illustrated to the students involved how difficult it can be to provide the necessities of life to a family when one has a limited income. The students also received a briefing on how a person deals with support agencies to receive assistance when living on a limited income.
The students’ direct contribution to the mission of the food bank included refurbishing boxes for use as distributions boxes, preparing distribution boxes for Food Bank customers, sorting and shelving contributions, and labeling cans that were donated without labels. They also prepared “backpack kits” of food and snack items to distribute to needy children, and collated brochures for the administrative staff.
The students involved gained three service hours.
