Eagle Ridge Academy School of Grammar Blog: Giving to others

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of other.” ~Mahatma Gandhi

The desire to give back to others is an important quality to instill in children. Helping them develop compassion and understanding for others is so key to do at a young age. Think about how you feel as an adult when you have done something to serve or help someone else. While children do not understand how to put words to that feeling they know what it is. I hear of lots of ways parents work to do this, whether it is donating toys when new ones come in the house, saving a portion of their allowance to donate to others, or taking their children with them for volunteer opportunities. At Eagle Ridge Academy, we have added a community service component to our Pillar program to also help build these qualities in our students. Some of our community service projects are in full swing and I am highlighting one in my blog this week.

As I noted earlier in the year, the Lower school has added a community service component to our Pillar program. Each grade level is doing one internal (Eagle Ridge Academy) community service project and one external community service project this year. Some of our community service projects are in full swing and I would like to highlight one in this blog.

Third grade students collected food and supplies to send to members of our military community serving overseas. They collected enough to fill 21 Boxes for soldiers in the Army currently serving in Kuwait. The students packed boxes and each wrote letters to the soldiers. The soldiers were very grateful to receive a taste of something from home and to know that a group of students in Eden Prairie, Minnesota were thinking of them and appreciate their sacrifice each day. Below are pictures of the boxes sent and the food that was stored after the soldiers grabbed what they wanted right away.

Mrs. Nimchuk had a special music sharing day for 1^st grade in November. The Senguptas (parents of Vijay and Catherine) brought their bandura (a Ukrainian folk instrument) and a 12-string guitar to share with all three 1^st grade classes. The 1^st graders learned about instruments in the guitar family, different chords, and sang songs. It was a wonderful cultural and community building experience as you can see below.