Greetings!
In this February issue of our newsletter, we continue the theme of Pathways connections to the wider community. This month we focus on what our students are doing to strengthen their ties and relate positively to those around them. This issue highlights community service by Pathways students from several sites, an assembly in which Pathways students were joined by others from DuVal to participate in an event with Harlem Globetrotter legend Spinny Johnson, and an educational field trip by Pathways-Springville and Crossland Re-Entry students during which they worked together and with staff from the Baltimore Aquarium to research and identify animals in the Phylum Lab.
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Pathways in the Community
Pathways students are finding that the hours they put in volunteering with and for community organizations are just as beneficial for them as they are for the people and causes they serve. Here are some of their stories:
· The Pathways School-Springville began a partnership with the SHARE Food Network in October, 2009. SHARE is a community distribution program that provides families, nursing homes, schools and other groups throughout the area with affordable, nutritious food. Every month, six or more students from Pathways-Springville go to a SHARE center and do a variety of
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Click here to visit SHARE |
tasks, including sorting and packing, taking orders, preparing snacks, and loading or unloading parcels. As they work side by side with other volunteers from the community and the SHARE staff, they have developed lasting friendships and connections. Memorable moments include the time when one of the Pathways students and a teacher were assigned to make soup for the volunteers. When adding what he thought was a dash of pepper flakes to the soup, the student was surprised when the apparently loose top of the container fell open and half the contents of the jar went into the soup. They thought the soup was ruined, but on the contrary, after the volunteers and clients took a taste, they applauded the extra spice! Everyone commented on how great the soup was!
These moments of laughter and appreciation are what make the volunteer experience truly enjoyable for our students, who work diligently at their tasks. SHARE staff and clients have remarked on our students' good people skills and work ethic. The Pathways students always seem to have a good time doing their work and look forward to it every month, even when they go home smelling like the onions they have been sorting for distribution!
· Throughout the fall, two students from The Pathways School-Edgewood went every Friday to the Bladensburg Waterfront Park, a community park and center run by the M-NCPPC. The park is supported by a network of
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Click on picture to visit the Bladensburg Waterfront Park |
local businesses and agencies who come together to provide a variety of services for the local area there. Consequently, the Pathways student volunteers have been involved with a number of very different efforts and tasks. One day, they may be sorting and distributing blue jeans; another they could be preparing tree seedlings to be given to families as part of a county beautification effort. Sometimes they work on landscaping and maintenance of the park, other times they help take ticket orders for the educational boat rides that the park provides on the Anacostia River. The range of experiences and the sense of purpose that their work provides have been beneficial for the students, who hope to once again volunteer when in March the park re-opens after the winter.
· For three weeks in the fall, students from Pathways-Anne Arundel and Pathways-Springville came together in a good-natured competition to see which site could
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Click here to visit the AA County Food Bank |
collect the most nonperishable food items to be given to the Anne Arundel County Food Bank. The "Kids Helping Kids Harvest for the Hungry Food Drive" was a huge success. The student volunteers organized the drive, distributed fliers, and asked their neighbors and friends to join in donating canned goods. Together they collected more than 300 pounds of food. |
