LIS ambassadors turn service into 2,000-item food drive

LEWISTOWN - Every Friday during Lewistown Intermediate School's food drive, 20 fifth-grade student ambassadors left their classrooms with assignments. Each had a floor and a route. They gathered donated food, carried it to a designated area and sorted what families had sent.

The count climbed beyond 2,000 items.

It was the first food drive organized through the school's Student Ambassador program, now in its third year. What began as an idea during a meeting became a schoolwide collection that supplied four Lewistown organizations: St. Vincent de Paul, the Dream Center, Mother Hubbard's Cupboard and the Lewistown Presbyterian Church Blessing Box.

"We ended up giving away over 2,000 items," said Sue Wagner, a fourth-grade math and science teacher at Lewistown Intermediate and adviser to the ambassadors. The response surpassed Wagner's expectations.

Mother Hubbard's Cupboard and the Dream Center picked up their donations at the school. Wagner delivered food to the Blessing Box, while Principal Victoria Mattey delivered the remaining share to St. Vincent de Paul.

After Wagner prepared the letter sent to families, the ambassadors handled most of the work. They collected donations each Friday, sorted the items and helped determine where the food would go.

Wagner said the idea emerged as school staff discussed ways students could respond to need in a difficult economy. All four recipient organizations serve the Lewistown community.

The drive drew support from families throughout the approximately 525-student school. Children carried the donations into school, but Wagner credited parents with helping them understand the purpose behind the collection.

"We want to support this program, and we want to support our community," Wagner said of the message parents sent their children.

The drive put the program's daily expectations into practice. The ambassador program grew from the school's Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support program, commonly known as PBIS. Its expectations ask students to be respectful, responsible, ready and safe. Wagner and other school officials wanted students to carry those lessons beyond classroom discussions and put them to use inside the school and throughout the community.

From the beginning, Wagner said, the program has encouraged students to demonstrate kindness, welcome classmates, include others and care for their surroundings at school and elsewhere.

Fifth-graders apply for the program, and school officials review the candidates before selecting 20 ambassadors. The students serve their school by handling morning announcements, helping the office secretaries and delivering Power Packs to classrooms on Friday mornings.

Their work also takes them outside Lewistown Intermediate. Once a month, the ambassadors visit residents at William Penn Nursing and Rehab. They spend about an hour and 15 minutes talking with residents and completing activities together at tables.

During one visit, the students and residents rolled dice and added the corresponding number of eyes to a pumpkin. The activity gave both generations something to work on and, more important, time to talk.

Wagner said the students leave those visits eager to return. "They say, 'Can we go back more than once a month?'" she said. "They absolutely love it."

Those visits and the food drive have given the ambassadors lessons Wagner believes a classroom alone can't provide. Completing assigned jobs teaches responsibility, while working with local organizations shows students what community service requires.

Wagner has taught for 31 years, working with students from kindergarten through 12th grade. She said the ambassadors' growth and their relationships with William Penn residents have made the program especially rewarding.

"I am just extremely proud of the LIS student ambassadors," Wagner said. "It's just so rewarding to watch."

Wagner said school officials try to add a responsibility or activity each year, allowing the ambassadors to take a larger role in the life of the school and its surrounding community.

No additional community project has been scheduled, but Wagner is considering future activities, including a Trunk or Treat event at Mifflin County High School or a fall festival at Reeds Gap.

The first food drive gave the program a measurable result: more than 2,000 items distributed among four organizations. It also showed what can happen when a weekly assignment draws support from a school community.

"The opportunities are endless," Wagner said. "It's just a matter of organizing it and planning it and making it come to fruition."