West Patent Elementary Completes a Week of Service

Over the last couple of years, West Patent Elementary School’s annual 9/11 Day of Service has become a full week of service. This year, the special week also helped kick off this year’s service-learning project. WPES has adopted BluePath, a non-profit organization that provides service dogs for children with autism, and will be raising money for them throughout the school year.

The week of service started with a special assembly with BluePath and service dog-in-training, Wordle. Unlike Jacey, the school’s facility dog, Wordle is learning how to do a task that helps one person with their disability.

“Service dogs learn tasks that will help people have a better life,” said Brittany LaChausse, a service dog trainer and facilities program coordinator at BluePath.

LaChausse explained how they train service dogs at playgrounds, parades, schools and celebrations so that they’re ready for what the child they are placed with might need. They even learn what to do to keep a child safe if they start to run away.

Students ooohed and awwwwed at pictures of the dogs and puppies and were fully invested in the project by the end of the assembly. While it costs about $40,000 to train a service dog, BluePath doesn’t charge families for them.

“This year, BluePath is going to be our non-profit of choice,” elementary coordinator Denise Connolly told students. “We’ll be selling honey and doing fundraisers throughout the year to raise money.”

Students worked hard all week to get their honey sale ready for parents at the back-to-school nights. Fresh from West Patent’s hive, they got to see what it looks like when honey gets harvested off the frames.

Each grade had a different job for the week. Kindergartners got an introduction to bees. First graders were ready to see them up close and personal! They put on bee suits and went out to the garden to see the bees at work.

“Bees are insects, and they don’t follow commands,” first-grade teacher Jennifer Vanzo told her class. “They have a job to do. We’re going out into their space, and we have to be respectful of that.”

Students were excited as they got suited up, making sure there was no skin exposed.

“I’m pulling my socks up!” one student shouted.

“It’s like we’re getting ready for playing in the snow, right?” tiered teacher Kathleen Keenan asked as they got zipped into suits and pulled gloves on.

 “The gloves feel cozy!” a student said.

“I have my own bee suit at home because my Pop Pop has bees,” another student said.

Once they were all dressed in their protective suits, Keenan and Alison Muller took them out to the courtyard, where students got to peek into a hive and hold a frame.

“There’s like a thousand!” a student said in amazement after looking into the hive.

Second graders decorated bags for the honey and weeded planters as part of a school beautification project. Third graders packaged the honey and created signs for the sale. They also did some weeding.

“Each of you is going to bag three jars of honey and put a stirrer in each one,” Keenan told third graders. “Oooh, this is a math lesson. How many students do we have here? Four. And you’re each going to bag three jars. How many jars is that in total?”

Fourth and fifth graders got to jar the honey. Fourth graders also weeded the garden, while fifth graders hung hammocks and cleaned the chicken coop and compost area.

There was a lot of hard work done throughout the week and there’s sure to be more throughout the year!

Click here to see many more photos from throughout the week.