During the month of October, Cross Keys High School SkillsUSA members participated in Pennies for Patients. Pennies for Patients is a service learning project in schools throughout Georgia. Members got involved to support The Luekemia Society’s mission of curing blood cancers and supporting patients and their families. Members had to learn the causes, symptoms and treatment of leukemia before starting the fundraiser. SkillsUSA members set a goal of $500 to donate. On October 31, the pennies were counted and we reached $400. Pennies for Patients has served as great community service project and members truly enjoy gathering the pennies.
Teaching patriotism and citizenship is important and usually not taught until students reach the fourth or fifth grade. We wanted to make sure that student receive some information on patriotic values so that they could develop an attitude toward respecting the flag. Cross Keys SkillsUSA members believe that it has to start at an early age. We used as our foundation one line in our Creed: We believe in the American Way of Life. We began with things that represent the American Way of Life such as: veterans, flag, the bold eagle. Believing that, our goal was to teach patriotism and citizenship to elementary school students.
On November 12, we were prepared with booklets to go to Woodward Elementary School. Our essential questions were: What is a veteran? What is the meaning of the Flag? How do you respect the Flag? Our booklets by grade level were titled:
Prekindergarten and kindergarten: handmade coloring books of the flag and veterans with crayons
First grade: Activity book about "Who is a Veteran"
Second grade: Storybook - History of the Flag
Third grade: Activity book - Respecting the Flag
Fourth and Fifth grade: Activity book on "Why join JROTC in high school
Naitlyn Salinas pictured above is works with kindergarten students as she describes the pictures in their coloring book. She stated "this proved to be a great project for our SkillsUSA members. We learned a lot from this activity".