Bowerman to host juvenile diabetes awareness walk

On Saturday, Oct. 18, students and staff at Bowerman Elementary School will walk the track to raise awareness for juvenile diabetes, a disease that impacts the lives of students and staff at the elementary school.

"We have a couple of students at Bowerman that deal with diabetes, and our PTA wanted to build awareness of it," said Dana Webb, principal at Bowerman Elementary. "We have such a diverse population, sometimes our kids don't realize that their friends or even their teachers are struggling with a disease that's silent."

The Bowerman PTA Juvenille Diabetes Research Foundation Awareness Walk will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18, on Bowerman's walking track. The walk is set to end approximately around noon. The community is invited to participate, and donations will be accepted for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. There is no participation fee.

 "It's important for us to have these type of events because they build awareness and help kids recognize that we have different challenges physically and academically, and sometimes we have diseases that make us different. Sometimes we have different skin colors," said Webb. "But our kids need to know that society is made up of different people, and we need to build up awareness around that."

Sequiota Elementary to celebrate 50 years on 50th day of school

On Wednesday, Oct. 22,  Sequiota Elementary School will celebrate 50 years of educating students on its 50th day of school. An all-school assembly at 9:30 a.m. will begin the day-long celebration at the school. It's all designed to cultivate school spirit in students, said Crystal Magers, Sequiota principal.

"When students learn about the history of Sequiota, it will in turn make them more vested in their school and community," said Magers. "When doing research on the last 50 years and talking to parents who went to school at Sequiota, we learned that Sequiota has always carried the same values. It's not just a school, but also a family that supports one another, and on Oct. 22, we want to celebrate 50 years of education, community involvement and family."

All living previous Sequiota principals will speak during the assembly, recounting their favorite memory of their time at the school to students. Then, students will learn about the history of Sequiota Elementary School before marking the occasion by submitting items to a time capsule to be opened on the school's 100th anniversary. Students will also walk through a history of Sequiota exhibit that will feature memorabilia, music and historical items from 1964, including a 1964 Mustang, news stories and movie clips from the year.

Community members are invited to attend the all-school assembly and to walk through the exhibit before or after the assembly.

SPS Hall of Fame inductees to visit their alma maters

SPS 2014 Hall of Fame inductees will visit their alma maters to see how much their schools have changed. The visits provide an opportunity for inductees to reflect on their time at SPS, while meeting with current students, said Lisa Langley, communication specialist.

"The purpose of the school site visits is to allow the inductees to go back to their alma maters and reminisce about their past," said Langley. "It also allows students to interact with the inductees and hopefully gain some knowledge of what it takes after high school to be successful in any field."

Professor John W. Reps will visit Central High School at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22. Scott Siman will visit the two high schools he attended while a SPS student. At 9:30 a.m., Siman will visit Kickapoo High School, followed by an afternoon visit at Glendale High School at 1:15 p.m.

The SPS Hall of Fame induction ceremony will begin at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23.

Sunshine Elementary to celebrate 150 years of educating students

On Friday, Oct. 24, current and former Sunshine students will join together for a special sesquicentennial celebration at Sunshine Elementary School. In honor of the school's 150 years of educating Springfield students, a special exhibit and presentation will be made at 5:30 p.m.

"In anticipation of this event, we would like to collect an oral history of remembrances, stories and anecdotes from people who attended Sunshine Elementary," said David Martin, Sunshine principal. "We are also collecting any historical artifacts for display at the school. Report cards, photographs, class pictures, newspaper articles, yearbooks, anything would be great. We'd love for people in this community to be a part of Sunshine's 150th anniversary celebration."

If you have a story, photo or artifact you would like to contribute, please contact the Sunshine office at 523-5200 or email sunshineschool421@yahoo.com, or visit the school on Facebook. 

Greene County Medical Society Alliance works to improve student health 

The Greene County Medical Society Alliance is gifting every Springfield Public Schools middle school with a copy of the Pills Are NOT a Party! and Smoking Makes Me Ugly!!! notebooks. This is their commitment to improving the health and well-being of all children in our community.

The GCMSA has been an active Partner in Education with SPS for over 10 years. In 2009 GCMSA created their first educational DVD Smoking Makes Me Ugly!!!, a 12-minute animation dealing with the dangers of smoking and its effects on our body. The target audience is middle school students, and the DVD has been used by the Health teachers in SPS since that time.

Their new DVD Pills are NOT a Party! addresses the issue of prescription and over-the-counter medication abuse. Animation effectively engages the children as the DVD follows a student from the purchase of pills, to attending a pill party, to an accidental overdose, and hospitalization. The DVD instructs about the proper use of medications and how they work in the body. Positive peer pressure, proper disposal of medications and legal implications are also presented. The 15-minute animation is designed for 10-12 year old children, a group identified by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as at risk to begin drug abuse.

This DVD was in part funded as a Doctors' Day Project with major contributions from Cox Heath, Ferrell Duncan Clinic, and Mercy. A Healthy Living Grant was obtained from the American Medical Association Foundation to develop a packet of accompanying educational materials. The packets were developed with the help of SPS health educators, Community Partnership of the Ozarks and the Greene County Medical Association Alliance. All printed materials may be reproduced for educational purposes. The notebooks contain the DVD, worksheets and handouts for students, educational information for educators and parents including proper disposal of medication.

For information, contact: Theresa Miller, SPS health educator, 417/523-5518 or

Barbara Hover, GCMS Alliance health project chair, 417/860-7133.