Ms. Bosman is an elementary teacher from Michigan who said, "service-learning is a passion of mine and the students who serve on our Student Lighthouse Team share that passion." For Bosman, "it's all about loving to work together and serving the community in any way you can." 

 

Over 500 K-5 students participated in activities organized by 30 Student Lighthouse Team members (a service-learning group) through the project Erving SLT Shines It's Light on the Community. After infusing the lesson What Will You Bring to the Table? students were eager to serve but not sure what they could do.  

 

"We cannot stop pollution," said Bosman. "But we can encourage our classmates to recycle and we can pick up trash when we see it." In some ways, simply breaking down what her students could and could not do made it easier for them to come up with projects for the year.  

 

The Lighthouse team organized two food drives for local organizations, sent letters and packages to soldiers and veterans, and made teacher appreciation gifts.  

"Students always comment about how fortunate they feel when they see the needs of others," said Bosman. "They talk about food scarcity and how if we did not collect and pack food for families, they may not eat on the weekends." 

 

As one student said, "Packing bags of food for other kids helped me to see how fortunate I am and how important our service is." Another said, "helping others makes me feel good, I wish we could do more projects."  

The group participates in monthly service projects during the school year where most projects don't require any money or financial support. The Learning to Give mini-grant helped cover the cost of transportation and craft supplies.  

 

"We are limited only by our ability to get to the people who need us," said Bosman. "The majority of this grant was used for bus transportation."