STAR students give back to the community<br><br>

Vikki Tomas’s third and fourth graders joined the younger students, also preparing potted plants and learning songs in Navajo and English to share with their new friends.

The entire student body collected food, which the younger students dropped off at the food bank before moving on to the nursing home. A long line of students, each carrying food, moved through the offices of the food bank, back to the warehouse, where each carefully placed his or her offerings on a scale. All were excited to learn that they had collected 101 pounds of food to help feed Arizona’s hungry. The staff at the food bank thanked the students and reciprocated by handing out Gatorade and snacks to all.

At the nursing home, students and residents met each other for the first time. The students, both teachers agreed, were a little intimidated by a roomful of elders in wheelchairs at first, but once they warmed up to the situation, it was a very emotional experience all around.

“One of the kids talked about this gentleman at the senior center who called for help, but when she tried to go to him, he gestured her away. She felt that he was scared,” Tomas said. “Later, this student went over to the man and gave him a key chain she had made, and he took it. She later wrote that it gave her a good feeling that ‘someone who was afraid of me felt better after I gave him a gift.’”

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