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Historical March 1996 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
This month’s spotlight is on the St. Louis Panthers AmeriCorps Program.
As you may know, Hamilton E.C.E.C. has been a site for AmeriCorps, a volunteer service program that was started by President Clinton, since the 1994-95 school year. AmeriCorps’ function at Hamilton is to encourage School Success through service learning and to promote Public Safety both in the school and in the surrounding community.
In each of these areas, AmeriCorps’ job is to identify community needs, to problem-solve creatively, to identify and develop resources, and to develop sustainable solutions.
The AmeriCorps Public Safety Volunteers are Ms. Amy Gronquist and Ms. Dedra Echols. Ms. Gronquist and Ms. Echols work to increase public safety by expanding the communication and cooperation between the schools the School Beat Officer, the Neighborhood Stabilization Officer, the residents of the community, and area businesses. Currently, they are involved in several projects with various community members.
In conjunction with the fourth and fifth grade teachers at Hamilton, they are planning the formation of a Safety Corps which will focus primarily on community service. Safety Corps members will participate in a training program that emphasizes team building, peer mediation, and conflict resolution.
The AmeriCorps Volunteers will work with the teachers to select students who have good attendance and are amicable, dependable, and wellrounded. Ms. Gronquist and Ms. Echols will collaborate with School Beat Officer John Cothrine and Neighborhood Stabilization Officer Jacqueline Wellington to develop a Community Needs Assessment.
This will determine the projects that the Safety Corps will undertake. Thus far Ms. Gronquist’s and Ms. Echols’ most conspicuous contribution within the school has been the continuation of Operation BrightSide, which was started by AmeriCorps Volunteers last school year. Operation BrightSide works to beautify the school by picking up litter from the school grounds and by removing the marks on the floor that are made by black-soled shoes.
This duty is known as “scuff patrol.” Operation BrightSide workers are students that have been sentenced to lunch detention as a result of inappropriate behavior. By participating in Operation BrightSide, these students have the opportunity to develop a sense of community responsibility by putting something back into their school. Operation BrightSide is good because I’m picking up trash,” said Jerome Rankins, a second grade student who has spent many weeks as a participant “You can recycle cans and glass.
If you step on glass you might get cut, so we pick it up so that our school will be more clean and safe. Ms. G. talked about what to do to be off of Operation BrightSide.
I have to be good and sit in my seat.” “We picked• up trash on the east lot where the little kids play,” added third grader Cedric Owens, “to make the schoolyard look more prettier.
We do it so people won’t think it’s a messy school.
It made me feel good because I made the schoolyard look prettier.
We talked about what to do to not get in trouble, like not to be around the people who gets you in trouble.
I learned not to be around people who talk about people.
I was glad I got to be on Operation BrightSide.” Operation BrightSide provides a positive alternative to lunch detention as a consequence for inappropriate behavior.
While the students are picking up litter, they discuss behaviors that will be more helpful to the community and ways of preventing future detentions. About 30 students have had the opportunity to spend time working with Operation BrightSide. AmeriCorps Volunteer Mr. Errick E. Moorehead’s focus is School Success through service learning. Mr. Moorehead works with the fourth grade teachers and students at Hamilton to infuse service learning and to integrate community service into the classroom curriculum.
The students identify the needs of the community by considering the following questions: Who can be helped? What can we do? Why is it important to serve the community?
In December, after the school wide canned good drive, the fourth graders wrote essays about the importance and the implications of helping the needy in the community. More recently, they made and distributed valentines to the residents at Kingsbury terrace Apartments, a senior housing facility. Mr. Moorehead also works with the fourth and fifth grade classes as the Junior Achievement facilitator. Fourth grade Junior Achievement focuses on Missouri’s natural resources, mapping, population, and general economy information.
The fifth graders are learning about how the nation’s businesses are operated.
They are simulating the establishment of a business by writing business plans, completing job applications, conducting mock interviews, and hiring employees.
A noteworthy event at Hamilton this month was the “Reach Out and Touch” program, a commemoration of Black History Month, on February 28.
The program was organized by Mr. Robert Henderson and Ms. Bonnie Robertson, and emceed by Mrs. Charlotte Mitchell.
The preschool students counted to ten in English and Swahili, accompanied by the music of Taifa, a local husband-wife duo whose music has African origins.
From the kindergarten, we heard a poem about Bill Pickett, the first black cowboy to be admitted to the Cowboy Hall of Fame, and a poem about respecting oneself and others and living each day as the best person one can be.
We also watched a demonstration of “Peas Porridge Hot,” an African-American hand-clap game. Two first grade classes performed “He Had a Dream,” a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, From a third grade class we heard the “African-American History Rap” by Sharon Jordan Holley.
A fourth grade class sang and signed a spiritual called “I’m Gonna Sing” and another group of intermediate students recited “April Rain Song” and “Refugee In America” by Langston Hughes. Fifth grade students portrayed Marian Anderson, George Washington Carver, Jackie Robinson, Charles Drew, Althea Gibson, Joe Louis and Harriet Tubman.
The Hamilton Honors Choir sang “Reach Out and Touch” by Ashford and Simpson, and the program ended with the entire student body singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “We Shall Overcome.” It was a delightful, informative program, and we are very proud of the students and teachers that participated. Friday, March 1, from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., the first Hamilton E.C.E.C. Dance was held in the gym.
The dance was for twelve to sixteen year olds and the theme was nonviolence. Officer John Cothrine and six other St. Louis City Police Officers provided security for the event. Between 100 and 200 people attended the dance.
The dance was D.J.’d by “Tossin” Ted Thornton from radio station Majic 108.
There was a dance contest and cassette tapes were given as prizes. Soft drinks were provided. by the AmeriCorps Volunteers.
The parents and kids that attended agreed with Amy Gronquist’s assertion that “it was good, clean fun,” Keep your eyes and ears open for information about the next Hamilton E.C.E.C. Dance, which will be held at the beginning of June. Mrs. Catherine Parker, the Counselor at Hamilton E.C.E.C., and the Hamilton Drug Free Committee are spearheading a school wide Drug Free Unit.
The program began in January with Drug Awareness Week. Children in all grade levels wrote poems, stories and paragraphs about the importance of staying drug free, and selected students read their compositions on HAM Radio.
The following week the students wore ribbons and made posters with the theme, “Drug Free Starts With Me!” Posters from each classroom were displayed at about 24 local businesses. Mrs. Parker and her committee are currently organizing a Speaker’s Day on Thursday, April 18, as a continuation of the Drug Free Schools Unit.
A judge and a prosecuting attorney will discuss the legal aspects of the issue, and the medical repercussions will be presented by a doctor and our school nurse, Raymonde Baker.
The field of law enforcement and the Juvenile Detention Center will also be represented.
The culmination of the Drug Free Schools Unit will be a Drug Free Parade on Friday, May 3, 1996. Mrs. Lillian Gray, our librarian, is planning a reading raffle and rally for the end of May in order to promote summer reading and to make students aware of their neighborhood public library branches.
She hopes to have a representative from the St. Louis Public Library and from a local bookstore to speak to the students. Stay tuned for more details about the Summer Reading Rally!
Finally, congratulations to Mrs. Trisha Martin and her kindergarten class for reaching their goal of reading 40 books in5weeks through the Book-It Program Mrs. Martin and her class will celebrate by having a pizza party.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, March 1996.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1996_03.pdf, printed page(s) 5, 6; PDF page(s) 5, 6.
