WHS students bake, raise money to support non-profits

WASILLA — Just as, according to kitchen manager Alice Renfro, “salt brings out the sweet” in baked goods, so can adverse circumstances bring out the good in people.

In Deb Haynes’ Advanced Human Relations class at Wasilla High School, students have begun selling homemade s’mores — that means marshmallow creme from scratch and chocolate chips melted over a stove — to raise money for The Children’s Place, a local non-profit organization created to help children and their families deal with trauma — such as sexual abuse — through various means and hold offenders accountable.

The money raised to potentially better the lives of children affected by traumatic experiences is not the only positive, however.

“The students work in the kitchen with these rules and that’s gonna give them job skills,” said Renfro’s assistant, Linda Myers-Steele, in the commercial kitchen at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church last Tuesday.

In addition to the lessons learned in a Department of Environmental Conservation-certified facility, students said they have learned more about each other and how to be good stewards in their community by being in Haynes’ human relations classes and the associated Peer Helpers program.

A few students spoke about what each brings to the table.

“In regular Human Relations, you learn more about yourself,” said Wasilla junior Celina Fritzler, a student in the advanced class. “This class is more about helping out others.”

Some examples of other events organized by the advanced class include a peanut butter and jelly drive for MY House last semester and a “Teen for Teen Forum” last month in which Wasilla High students met with home-schooled students from Mat-Su Central and presented on substance abuse, domestic violence, and where to go for help.

Though most of the 13 students in the class admitted their older siblings or friends had encouraged them to take the class — rather than coming to it on their own — each expressed a genuine appreciation for the class.

Senior Elijah Hall, a former football player and current wrestler and soccer player, said he has been most impacted by the sheer number of donations the class has been able to collect for various organizations when they unite in a particular effort. That, in turn, has helped him “grow as a person.”

“I feel like I’ve grown up a lot, and this class has really helped with that,” he said. “It helps you think about things from a different angle, a different point of view.”

That growth and that change in perspective, students say, can only come about with trust and respect. Senior student MacKinzie McCoy, one of the four girls making the first batch of s’mores last Tuesday, said she learned that lesson well when she discovered how much she had misjudged one of her classmates. Thinking of the girl as a “stereotypical cheerleader,” McCoy was shocked by her “back story.”

“I thought, ‘wow, she is such a strong person,’” she said, recalling the moment.

But it wasn’t just about one person. McCoy said she sees now that that everyone has a story.

“There are 1,200 students at Wasilla High School,” she said. “You only see the outer surface of so many of us.”

Junior Sophia Myrick seconded that statement, and added that student-to-student relationships are of utmost importance to the function and dynamic of the class.

“If you don’t get that trust in the beginning, you really can’t develop,” Myrick said.

Myrick also said she knows a few students who think the human relations classes are “stupid” or “a waste of time,” but that getting a compatible group of people makes all the difference.

“Some people were just too withdrawn, and they didn’t have that trust,” she said.

So, perhaps there is some risk involved in the class — high school students have to feel comfortable to lay bare what’s going on in their life in class, for if they don’t trust each other on a personal level, the functionality of the group might be at stake.

“(This class) is like a break in your day. You really connect with people and talk to everyone in class. You become a family,” Myrick said.

Other classes, she said, are not the same.

“All your other classes, you go there, learn and leave,” she said. “You don’t have those connections.”

But perhaps having a teacher who understands them, who is approachable and who has the same goals as his or her students makes just as much if not more of an impact as having classmates with those same qualities.

Every student in Haynes’ second-hour advanced class cited her as a significant motivation for taking the class, some saying “I love Ms. Haynes” and “Ms. Haynes is awesome.”

Haynes, however, said the program would not be where it is today without those who came before her. The surnames of English and Human Relations teacher Blake Livingston, former WHS Principal Dwight Probasco and former teachers Linda Ransom and Andrea Gavlak are stamped on a wall of Haynes’ classroom, paying homage to those who have contributed to human relations classes at Wasilla High School over the years.

Perhaps this is just another illustration of the class’s community focus.

“It’s fun doing good things for others,” McCoy said.

The Advanced Human Relations class at Wasilla High raised about $116 for The Children’s Place in the last week in s’mores sales, and they intend to continuing making the baked goods every Tuesday until the end of the semester to sell at various events.

Colony High School also has plans for a fundraiser for the Children’s Place this coming, as they did last year.

For more information about human relations at WHS, contact Deb Haynes at deb.haynes@matsuk12.us.

To learn more about The Children’s Place, visit thechildrens-place.org.