This year a group of girls in from one of my classes decided that they wanted to help out the janitorial staff. They spoke with the janitors and made arrangements to help clean up the school gym after a basketball tournament.
As they cleaned the gym they took pictures of each other and saved some of the trash as memorabilia. After getting the photos developed they put together a display, using a poster board. They displayed this to the school.
The janitorial staff in this school was thrilled with the work that these girls did and has agreed to host any future G.R.E.A.T. projects in the future.
For the past several years one of the middle schools where I teach the GREAT program has done a GREAT community clean-up day. This school district hosts students from several small communities in the southeastern part of our county. These students are bussed from the school to the small communities where they spend the afternoon cleaning up around town.
Time is spent raking leaves for the elderly, sweeping the curb lines, picking up trash around town, and cleaning community buildings. I have been pleased with the interaction of the community members with the students during these events. We have even made a video of the events and play them at the school, so that it is displayed for everyone to see.
The school administration is so happy with this program that they have taken over all of the coordination and planning.
