K.A.R.E worked with Glenside Elementary school on the “Only One You” service project. Overall, it was three different groups who were tasked with this project. The Only One You project is based on a book by Linda K. It is about a fish who ventures out own his own and finds his own path in this great big world. This project has a message component in it that tells the children to be themselves. It reminds the kids to find their own path in life and to stay true to themselves. This message is an important one because in life kids grow up and sometimes lose track of themselves surrounded by many life obstacles. Instilling this positive message in their live can be great in the long term. For the service projects, kids will paint rocks with different colors of a fish. At the end, the rocks will be spread out in the garden in a river like shape. Also there were signs with quotes from the book.
In the beginning, K.A.R.E had an initial meeting with the Vice Principal Karen Houck about the many service projects at Glenside. There, she told us the many positive things that other students have done in the past and what students can do this year. Karen Houck also went over clearances in able to be interact with the children. K.A.R.E proceeded with our tasks and kept in contact with Karen and got our clearances. There was some confusion overall between the three different groups and the art teachers at Glenside elementary school. The “Only One You” project had many different components in it to achieve success. First the rocks needed to be primed, then the rocks needed to be painted by the kids from many different grades, finally at the end the rocks needed to be sealed with a final coat to ensure longevity. The components that became mixed up was the communication factor of the project. Later, we found out the Karen Houck worked between two different schools so she was not physically there to inform the art teachers about everything. Also there were communication barriers with the other groups as well. Overall, we figured everything out and worked together cohesively to make the “Only One You” project successful.
In addition, K.A.R.E worked at Earth Day at Penn State Berks. Collectively over the course of the day our team helped the kids paint the rocks and assisted the kids on a tour of the agriculture center. This project as whole was wonderful and we were glad to be a part of this project.
