Student Profile: Get to Know Miracle

Miracle

1. Extracurricular Activity(ies): Church

2. Favorite Food: Pizza

3. Favorite Subject in School: Math

4. Looking forward to most about NYC: Beautiful Sites

5. Favorite part about living in Marvell: The people

6. What you want to be when you grow up and why?:
A doctor because I want to help people.

7. Where would you like to go to college if you could choose any college?:
University of Southern Georgia

8. Do you have any pets? (If yes, what are their names?)
Yes, Honey

9. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be, and why?
California, because of my family.

10. Are there any parts about the New York City trip that you are nervous about?
No

Humane Society of the Delta Volunteering

As one of the required parts of our students eligibility to participate in our "Bright Lights and the Big City" trip to NYC, they are required to accumulate community service hours in order to earn "points." One of the service activities that we've been participating in on a regular basis now is volunteering at the Humane Society of the Delta.

The Humane Society of the Delta was founded just over a year ago, and has made significant strides in reducing the number of strays in Phillips County through both local adoption and transport services that allow animals to be transported to other areas of the country where they have a better chance of being adopted into a loving home.

On Monday afternoons, students and at least one of our trip chaperones have been lending a helping hands by "getting their hands dirty" and feeding, watering, and cleaning up after the animals at the shelter.

One of the more endearing parts of this activity had been to see the tender way students who sometimes may appear to have a "tough outer shell" gently pet and show affection to the animals after the work is done and they are able to spend some time giving the animals much-needed personal attention.

We hope to continue this partnership with the Humane Society in the Spring and feel that our students are learning valuable lessons that will help them to become better adults and add positive contributions to our society in the future.

Marvell Christmas Parade

Our students spread their holiday cheer as they passed out candy and escorted Mr. and Mrs. Clause in the annual Marvell Christmas Parade. The trip sponsors felt it was a great opportunity to make the community aware of our trip and for the students to give back directly to the town of Marvell. Additionally, you can tell by the smiles on our student's faces that they were excited to share in the spirit of the season and proud of where will be headed in just a few short months!

NYC Fundraising Progress, Trip Points Tracker, and Info Board

Just wanted to show off our beautiful bulletin board that we're using to get the students excited about the trip and let them know where they stand in regards to "trip points." We also use it to post updates as to when we'll have our next after-school meeting, and how far along we are in fundraising using our Statue of Liberty .

The poster is an old black-and-white photograph of Times Square in the early 1900s.

The board is located in the middle school hallway where all of our eighth graders pass at least once a day. It's always exciting to see the students gather around when we update the students' "trip points" tracker. We are seeing more and more investment in the trip every day!

Trash Clean-up Community Service

In an effort to help our students see the importance of bettering their community and help them develop a sense of pride in “earning” their way on our trip to New York, we had our first official community service event of the year.

Mr. Franks, Ms. Key, and Mr. Neuwirth spent this past Wednesday afternoon with our students cleaning up litter and trash around downtown and Main Street in Marvell. We took the opportunity to explain how littering is bad for the environment and how many items stick around for long after we’re gone because they are not biodegradable. At one point, the students were even racing each other to see who could pick up the most trash!

Overall, it was clear that the students appreciated the opportunity to help out their community and feel like they were making a difference.

Stay tuned for information about our next community service event, during which we are planning to help out at the Phillips County Humane Society.

Face Painting Fundraiser at Homecoming

Go Mustangs! We held our second fundraiser this past Friday at our annual homecoming football game. With the help of Mr. Franks and Ms. Poulin, our students helped to put smiles and a little extra bit of spirit on the faces of the crowd by hosting a face painting booth throughout the night.

Our students were busy painting faces, recruiting customers (which explains why we had a line for most of the night), and even helped clean up. We raised over $50, but just as important, we also helped make memories and increase morale for the team!

Check out the picture to see some of our students at work!

First Fundraiser

This past Saturday some of our 8th Graders participated in our first fundraiser, a bake sale at the annual Marvell Main Street Festival. Our students Troikasheia, Tyeisha, and Delytray helped with the sales with Ms. Poulin while other students participated by baking things and serving the community by helping Mr. Neuwirth with the 5k race. We raised over $200 to go towards the trip!

We've also started having weekly meetings during which the student's have been writing thank you notes and asking all kinds of questions about the City and what we're going to be doing on the trip. They are definitely getting excited about it as we begin to do more and more activities to get ready.

Coming up we are going to have more fundraisers and community service opportunities for the students to earn points towards their spot on the trip, so stay tuned and we'll keep you updated!