Over 100 students from Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School and Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School developed, marketed and staffed their First Annual Health and Safety Fair for Elementary School students and their families.
These amazing high school students turned 10,000 square feet at the GiftsToGive mill into a Spring Fair! Over 500 neighborhood students and their families visited and had a great time, all the students learned a lot, got brand new books to take home and had a healthy lunch.
Jeanne Butler, a Health Careers teacher at Old Colony Voc Tech conceived the idea as a tangible service learning experience for her students. Jeanne forged an alliance with Greater New Bedford Voc Tech. She recruited over 25 community groups to exhibit. Her leadership not only launched an annual community event, but exemplified service learning with tangible and measurable results. When we talk about remarkable teachers, we talk about Jeanne Butler!
Photos from our day are here.
Twenty-five community agencies exhibited and each had a learning component and terrific prizes and surprises. The SouthCoast Hospital Van did screenings. The Bristol County Sheriff’s Mobile Command Van gave tours and our favorite fire-fighters brought Ladder 3 out for the kids to tour and take photos.
500 Elementary School Students picked out and took home over 2,000 new books!
Dusty, Hoppy and Hey-U performed their best clownery. Miss New Bedford read to kids and helped give out over 2,000 children’s books, a gift from the SouthCoast’s BEST outlet book store – Book Enterprises in Fall River.
When people talk to us about building a more caring community, we talk about the Vocational High School Students and their tangible philanthropy and citizenship!