Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
TEN SLEEP – For many students the last day of school is a celebration of an end to a school year of hard work and the beginning of the lazy days of summer.
Ten Sleep School students Blake Holiday and Brandon Mills place flowers on a grave in Ten Sleep cemetery Wednesday morning during the Ten Sleep School last day of school community service event.
TEN SLEEP – For many students the last day of school is a celebration of an end to a school year of hard work and the beginning of the lazy days of summer. But for Ten Sleep School students the last day of school is not only a celebration but a lesson in giving back to others by doing community service.
Wednesday, after taping Ten Sleep School social studies teacher Dane Weaver to the wall, Ten Sleep School students K-6 went to the Ten Sleep cemetery to decorate the graves with flowers for Memorial Day and students 7-11 helped with the recycling program.
Doing community service on the last day of school has been a tradition for Ten Sleep School students for as long as anyone can remember. Ten Sleep School special education teacher Paula Beck states that the students have been doing community service since before she started working at the school in 2000.
Ten Sleep School teacher Nikki Erickson said, "We have done community service as part of our last day for quite a few years but I'm not sure what year that started. We have done things like plant flowers, highway cleanup, help at the cemetery, recycle, etc. In the past, 4-H traditionally always put out the flowers at the cemetery and the LDS Young Women/Young Men always put out the flags. Several years ago, we started having the elementary put out the flowers; and this will be the second year students have put out the flags, too."
Teachers at the school believe that having the students do community service teaches the students to take pride in their community and the special feeling of helping others. One student at the cemetery was concerned that he didn't have any relatives buried in the cemetery and was at a loss as to what to do. After being told that he could decorate any grave and that by doing so he was helping someone else decorate who maybe couldn't do the work themselves, happily found the perfect grave for his flowers.
Worland Middle School students will be doing their own community service projects Friday.
