Service learning benefits even our youngest students

The children at the Illinois State University Child Care Center showed an interest in bakeries this summer (2005) so the teachers arranged for the kids to tour the bakery at Jewel-Osco in Normal. After gaining a better understanding of the bakeries and how they operate, the kids decided to have a bake sale to show others what they had learned during their project. The kids and their families made cookies, muffins, pies, breads, brownies etc. to sell at the sale. The children advertised their sale as well as priced and labeled the items to be sold. Family and friends on campus, along with all of the children's hard work, made the sale a huge success.

The children calculated their earnings and discovered they had made $136.25. The kids agreed that they would like to give the money to those less fortunate. The children came up with a list of 10 charities which were narrowed down to two organizations, The Salvation Army and The Humane Society. Each child cast their vote. The Salvation Army had the most votes so the Child Care Center Director contacted the organization and Officer Scott Shelbourn visited the Child Care Center to collect the money.

Officer Shelbourn explained what kinds of things the children's donation would help to buy such as food, helping people pay their utility bills or rent and buying fans for people that don't have air conditioning. He told the children how proud he was of them for helping people locally and around the world with their donation and that he hoped they continued to help those in need throughout their lives.

The image on the left is the letter the children wrote to the Salvation Army and the image on the right shows some of the children working at the bake sale.