On December 3rd, the eighth grade class ventured to Century Center. Dressed finely in suits, we walked into the building with synchronized footsteps and matching hand positions.  We sat at table 56 and enjoyed the exquisite salads, pasta dishes, and cheesecake and we were entranced by the flower shaped butter.

          As we ate the actual flowers that were presented on our salads, we listened to many inspirational speakers, some of which, were former guests of the Center for the Homeless. One woman was deaf in one ear and overcame domestic violence and has had a home with her children for the past six years. Her son now attends Atlanta Institute of Art and the other has graduated high school. She works in special education for the school corporation.

          The keynote speaker started the nonprofit organization, Invisible People. “Invisible People goes beyond the rhetoric, statistics, political debates, and limitations of social services to examine poverty in America via a medium that audiences of all ages can understand, and can’t ignore. The vlog puts into context one of our nation’s most troubling and prevalent issues through personal stories captured by the lens of Mark Horvath – its founder – and brings into focus the pain, hardship and hopelessness that millions face each day. One story at a time, videos posted on Invisible People.tv shatter the stereotypes of America’s homeless, force shifts in perception and deliver a call to action that is being answered by national brands, nonprofit organizations and everyday citizens now committed to opening their eyes and their hearts to those too often forgotten.”

While we’d like to say we wrote that, we did not. It was taken from the Invisible People website. We suggest you check it out and donate to the wonderful cause they support. We listened to Mark Horvath speak passionately about all of the people he’d run into during his time as a homeless person himself, then as a person who wants to tell homeless people’s stories. And we had the pleasure of talking to Mark after lunch. 

We also met Irish Dave, a local celebrity and radio host on U93. He asked to call him the next morning, which we did, and we ended up on the radio. Did any of you hear us?

All in all, it was another wonderful Center experience.

The eighth year students have begun our weekly visits to the South Bend Center for the Homeless. It is truly an eye opening experience. At the Center, some students help in the Center’s Montessori classroom, which, for those of you that don’t know, is as much a part of our school as the classrooms in the EC building. Although this classroom is set up just like the others, it is very unique. It's the only Montessori classroom that’s part of a center for the homeless in the country, possibly the world.

Another group of us help in the kitchen. We prepare food for the many hungry residents at the center. We also help the kitchen staff haul water and food in and out of storage. I think it’s safe to say we have never opened so many sugar packets in our lives. In the span of two visits to the center we opened about 1000 sugar packets.

At the Center we learned about the harsh reality for those who live there. While at the Center, we get to meet the guests who are kind loving people. We tend to see ourselves differently than those living on the streets but, in reality, we are quite similar. They are normal people like you and me, they have just fallen on hard times. And the majority of homeless people in our country are children. That fact was a real eye-opener. Especially after seeing the rooms that families at the Center have to share. The center helps us to become far more appreciative than we ever would be without this incredible experience. We have many trips to the Center on the way and many Montessori graduates continue to go after eighth grade. Now on to what the seventh year have to say about their service at school.

While the eighth years are at the Center for the Homeless, the seventh years are working around the school. Work consists of helping in Early Childhood, Lower El, at the Front Desk, in the Library, and for Ms. Lauren. It really teaches us about the different people at school, that we usually will not be able to spend time with. It has been an interesting experience and all of us have really enjoyed it.

In Early Childhood we help the teachers with their problems, as well as the children. When the kids need help they ask the Junior High to assist them with their work. The kids really enjoy when we come because they really feel the support we give to help them, to be a more successful learner. The Early Childhood students request the Junior High students because they really enjoy our help and care.

Pizza Friday

For those who don’t know, Pizza Friday is a micro-business operated by the Junior High students. Every Friday we order pizza from Papa Johns and add salad, carrots, fresh fruit, and a choice of milk. One third of the money earned goes to a nonprofit of our choice, another third goes to the school, and the last third goes to the Junior High classroom for a school trip later in the year. We are involved in marketing, taking orders from our customers, creating spreadsheets to track orders and finances and ordering and preparing the food. Then, each Friday, four JH students set up and distribute the pizza to the rest of the school.

Last school year, Audrey DeLano created a Pizza Friday website template for her capstone project. With the help of Thomas Bland who is adding functionality, we’re hoping to begin using the website this year. It will be used for ordering, taking payments and tracking orders.

Pizza Friday has been very successful for a long time and it is still running well. Business is booming and we hope to continue it for many years to come.

Tremont

As most people know, the Junior High classroom ventured on a treacherous, ten hour journey to the beautiful Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. We were to stay for a week at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. There we would brave the wilderness from our air-conditioned dorm. We would climb the mountains on our 8 mile hike, and trek through thorny bushes at Cade’s Cove. We would fall into icy streams while doing physics, and run from the merciless yellow jackets. We would gain knowledge of science, nature, and history. But most of all, we would bond. Bond with nature, bond with our classmates, and bond with the people and wildlife that we encountered.

We participated in many fun but informative classes in which we learned many things. We went salamandering and caught many salamanders. We also embarked on a living history hike in which we went back in time and talked to the old residents of Tremont. We talked to loggers, teachers, and farmers. We splashed around in streams and found interesting organisms that you can’t find in Indiana.

At the dining hall, we would listen to corny jokes, and tried to have no food waste. The table captains, which switched every meal, had the responsibility of serving everyone else at the table. If there was no more of a food that someone wanted at that table, they would ask the table captain to go get more of that food, otherwise known as scavenging. The table captains would do this by going to other tables and seeing if they had any of that food left, and if they did, they might give to the table captain who was trying to obtain food. If no one else wanted anymore, then the table captain would take the food back to his table, and share it with everyone at that table.

It was definitely a peaceful experience. It was a change of pace from our fast paced life and taught us to embrace the nature around us. Sure, we may not have mountains to painfully hike eight, thirsty miles through but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a solo walk in our neighborhood. We learned to connect ourselves to the environment around us. Whether it was during our solo hike, or screaming songs around a campfire, or while we were star gazing, we bonded and had an amazing time.

We wish we were still there.