‘Agents of Change’ raises awareness, about $900 for charities

PALMER — More than 100 students packed the Colony Middle School library last Tuesday to listen to speeches and raise money for good causes as part of a three-day event organized by students in Tricia Kenney’s fifth- and sixth-period language arts classes.

Kenney said the idea for the first-time fundraiser grew out of a four-week unit she taught this year on memoirs written by young authors about her students’ age. She said the class read several true stories about kids using their strength of character to overcome adversity.

Students read “Iqbal,” “A Long Walk to Water,” “Endangered,” or “I Am Malala.” Most read more than one of the books before picking a cause included in the book and doing research on the subject, Kenney said.

Most students ended up reading more than one of the books on the list because they were interested in the stories after hearing classmates talk about the books, Kenney said.

Seventh-grade students Isa Weiss and Grace Hunter said after reading “I Am Malala” and “Iqbal,” they chose the subject of education for girls as the research topic for their speech.

“We got to actually open our minds to so much,” Weiss said.

The two said they knew generally about some of the issues like boy soldiers, endangered wildlife, and access to education for girls, but not in a personal way.

“They never meant something to me,” Weiss said.

Now she said she feels inspired to work to make a change in this world.

“Through the love and generosity of others, you’ve been given the chance to go to school,” the two said during their speech. “Girls can do amazing things. It’s up to us to give them a chance.”

As part of the lesson, students also studied the virtues their characters exhibited and thought about how they could develop and practice those virtues in their own lives, Kenney said.

She said she hoped the “Agents of Change” unit would inspire students, but what happened at Colony Middle last week was beyond even her most ambitious expectations.

“This isn’t for a grade,” Kenney said. “They felt compelled to raise awareness.”

She said the assignment was for students to prepare speeches to present to other language arts or social studies classes. But students were so inspired by what they learned, Kenney said, they wanted to share the knowledge with a bigger audience.

That’s when students had the idea to present the speeches in the library for their fellow students and to pair the presentation with fundraisers for three causes, one for each day of the event last week.

Seventh-grader Shaela Asbury took the class’s idea to Principal Mary McMahon and she approved it.

After organizing a clothes drive for Kenya, students wanted to do more, Hunter said.

“We all wanted to do more with it and Shaela made it happen,” she said.

Weiss agreed.

“She’s been a big part in this,” she said.

Not everyone in class presented the speeches they prepared, Kenney said, but all of the students in the class were involved in organizing and orchestrating the event. Some students spoke, some helped with a silent auction and cake walk, and others made baked goods for a bake sale, she said.

Hunter and Weiss were among a group of students who also prepared a presentation promoting the event and went from class to class at Colony Middle promoting the opportunity for their classmates to join them in being “Agents of Change.”

In the end, about half the student body attended the Agents of Change fundraiser.

“It was just a very educational unit,” Weiss said. “We are all really grateful to Ms. Kenney for making it happen.”

Kenney said the unit — which focused on public speaking skills and preparing speeches — was an eye-opener for many of her students.

“They see their own experiences differently after learning more about what their peers face,” she said.

Students raised about $900 to donate to the World Wildlife Fund, Save the Children, MY House and For South Sudan, Principal McMahon said.

“And it all started with reading a book,” CMS librarian Robin Turk said.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.