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The Evening Sun |
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| By ERIN JAMES Evening Sun Reporter Article Launched: 06/09/2008 12:55:19 PM EDT Pamela Brown gets her fifth-grade students involved during a reading lesson last month at Alloway Creek Intermediate School in Littlestown. (Evening Sun Photo by Meghan Gauriloff) Purchase reprints of Evening Sun Photos at EveningSunPhotos.Com. Related Pay it Forward Jun 9: Deborah's Angels II knits, quilts, sews for charity Bocce court proposed by Local Sons of Italy Pamela Brown is the type of teacher who doesn't ask her students to do anything she wouldn't do herself. It's a principle the Alloway Creek Intermediate teacher put into action recently, when she turned a "What would you do with $1,000?" assignment into a bid for real cash. Brown said she asked her fifth-grade students to think about what they would do with $1,000, but she wanted them to "go beyond just a list of things that I would possibly want to buy." The goal of the lesson was to encourage the students to be innovative, creative - to think outside the box, she said. Brown completed the assignment, too, by crafting a plan to teach students life skills through a mentoring program with local businesses and charities. Pamela Brown, seen reading to students, is the winner of The Evening Sun's "Pay it Forward" campaign. She came up with a plan to use the $1,000 prize to pair students with business mentors who will teach them skills that will benefit the community. (Evening Sun Photo by Meghan Gauriloff) Purchase reprints of Evening Sun Photos at EveningSunPhotos.Com. A thousand bucks could go a long way, she figured, if more people were involved. About a month later, Brown said, she was reading the newspaper over her husband's shoulder when she noticed an ad that asked readers to submit their ideas for ways to spend $1,000 in a way that would benefit the community. The winner would get the cash and a chance to make his plan a reality. Brown said she was shocked about the timing of her own assignment and The Evening Sun's "Pay it Forward" campaign. The teacher already had her plan. "Then I just started tweaking it a little bit," she said. Brown was chosen recently as the winner of the campaign - part of a new statewide initiative undertaken by dozens of Pennsylvania newspapers to encourage readers to get involved in their communities. Local contest applicants were encouraged to identify a need not being addressed in the community and develop a plan using $1,000 to address that need. Forward thinking: The Evening Sun received more than 25 entries from readers in the Hanover-Adams County area. Some ideas were broad, others very specific. Some readers identified causes within the local area, while others said the money is most needed elsewhere in the nation or world. Causes ranged from making up for a shortage of food and shelter, to humanitarian relief in Ghana, to individuals with multiple sclerosis in need of financial support. A mother requested the funds on behalf of her son - a Marine killed in a car accident - to create a scholarship in his name. A teacher asked that the money go toward a scholarship for a college student whose parents had died. A friend said some now-retired business owners are struggling to make ends meet and could use the money to buy a furnace and repaint their house. But the ideas that helped the local community, fulfilled a need not already being addressed and helped the most people possible through a pay-it-forward spirit were the most deserving of consideration, a committee of newspaper employees decided. Some ideas came close. One Hanover organization wants to build bocce ball courts that would be accessible to the whole community and fulfill a recreational need. Another organization needs funds to continue their work of sewing, knitting, crocheting and quilting to benefit the needy. Winning plan But Brown's idea ultimately won over committee members for being innovative, local, feasible and well-developed. The plan that Brown developed for her own assignment and later tweaked for the contest uses the $1,000 primarily for supplies, but it's the manner in which those supplies will be used that makes the idea unique. Brown said she plans to partner with local businesses on a mentoring program that will teach students mechanical, construction and painting skills - which they will then use to benefit single moms, widows, college students, the elderly and local charities. For one lesson, students will be taught by professional mechanics how to change a car's oil. Then they'll use a chunk of the $1,000 to print out coupons for an oil-change drive that will benefit low-income people. In another lesson, construction workers will teach students how to assemble shelving units, which will then go to organizations like the Safe Home or Tender Care Pregnancy Center. Brown said she'd use a similar process to teach students painting skills, which they'll put into action at a local charity. And while the tangible benefits will be spread throughout the community, it's the students that Brown said she sees getting the most out of the experience. "I want it to benefit my students the most," she said. "They'll have a rewarding experience giving to others." Brown said she's currently in talks with mentors and organizations and that she plans to get started sometime this summer. The culmination of the project is to host a computer literacy workshop that Brown said will teach students and their parents computer basics, Internet safety and computer careers. They'll leave with a recycled computer, printer and paper, she said. Brown said the intent of the campaign fit perfectly with that of the original assignment - to make a relatively small amount of money benefit as many people as possible. "Sometimes it's your time and talents that make all the difference," Brown said. Contact Erin James at ejames@eveningsun.com. |
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