Spring Break
Fun Day gives to St. Jude's
Joe Astrouski / City Editor
Issue date: 4/3/09 Section: News
|
The craft project seemed ordinary, except for the 10-or-so Eastern students sprinkled throughout the room, each squatting or kneeling to see the fourth graders at eye level.
The college students were volunteers at Jefferson Elementary School's "Fun Day," part of Eastern's Greek Week.
But something else made the craft projects unique: their destination.
The students made doorknob hangers for patients at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, many adding messages on them reading "Happy Easter" and "Smile."
Shaffer said the project helps teach her students about other children facing challenges.
"I think it's a good experience for both sets of kids," Shaffer said. "The philanthropy involved is really wonderful."
Shaffer said her students enjoy spending time with the visitors from Eastern.
"The young kids really look up to them…and see them as adult figures," Shaffer said. "The EIU kids get to work with elementary kids…which a lot of them haven't done."
Along with the craft project, Eastern students also supervised the children as they climbed through a bouncing inflatable obstacle course in the school's gym.
They also led the children in a "sponge relay," in which participants fill a sponge with water from a bucket, run with the dripping sponge to another bucket and squeeze out its contents.
Whichever team fills their bucket the fullest, wins.
"(The kids) are all getting excited and our people are getting excited," said Jacki Carmichael, a member of the Fun Day Steering Committee. "It's good."
Getting either group of kids excited is the result of months of planning and help from Elise Ramsey a fourth-grade teacher at Jefferson and adviser for Alpha Gamma Delta, said Greek life coordinator Robyn Paige.
"It's really lucky for us that we have that insider," Paige said. "She gives us a lot of guidance…and tells us what will work and what won't."
Joe Astrouski can be reached at 581-7942 at jmastrouski@eiu.edu.
The Daily Eastern News encourages on-topic, civil discussion on its articles posted online. It is our policy not to screen comments before they are posted or edit them after they are posted. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic, malicious, libelous or include excessive foul language. The DEN also reserves the right to turn off all comments on any story it deems necessary.
Comments violating copyright law will also be removed.
Users who repeatedly violate this policy will be banned from commenting.
If you have any questions on our comment policy or wish to report a comment that you feel violates these standards, please e-mail a link to the article to our Online Editor at DENNews.com@gmail.com.
Be the first to comment on this story