Slackwood's Eagle Students - Whiz Kids

• Eagle Students
• Slackwood Elementary students (grades K-3)
• Collecting spare change and potato chip bags to become "Wish Granters" for One Simple Wish

Slackwood Elementary School runs an after-school program for students in kindergarten through third grade called The Eagles. (The eagle is the school's official mascot.) The Eagles are all English language learners. Teachers Debbie Silver and Pam Adamczyk’s “goal is to help them with their homework and extra skill building and conversation to give them that extra help they may not get at home,” Silver said.

In addition to teaching them about subjects normally covered in school, Silver and Adamczyk are teaching them the importance of helping others. The children in the program have been collecting spare change and Frito Lay potato chip bags to participate in Wish Giving, the core program of One Simple Wish.

The potato chip bags are “upcycled” and turned “affordable green products” by TerraCycle in Trenton. Terracycle gives the school 2 cents for each bag. That might not seem like a lot until you see the piles of potato chip bags and realize it can add up to a nice sum of money, which in turn will help someone else. The students  put the chip bags into groups of 25, as a way of working on their counting and math skills, not as a requirement for TerraCycle.

Early next month the class will total their money and decide which wishes to grant. Silver said “the kids are getting this is a small and attainable goal. The children they help are in foster care or under government assistance.”

This spirit of philanthropy is strong in this program. Last year students raised money to build a well in India, but decided this year to help children closer to home.