James Monroe School may be one of the smallest schools in the district but it has a huge heart when it comes to community service. Last year, teacher's Tami Ruvolo and Debbie Sheehan started a Community Service Club that invited children in grades 3-5 to join and plan service projects. This small group of children, under the guidance of our two members, has done some remarkable things in their short existence.

They started by collecting juice pouches to recycle with a company called Terra Cycle. Our school earns 2 cents for every bag and so far they have collected, washed and packed up 1,000 juice pouches!

After reading an article about the earthquake in Haiti, they found out that although the schools in Haiti were hoping that children would attend after the earthquake, they didn't have basic school supplies, such as pencils. The Community Service Club collected 2,000 pencils through our Pencils for Haiti contest. They also promoted a conservation intiative, the Water Droplet contest, and selected a winner from each grade level who wrote and illustrated a unique idea for saving water. 

The CSC has worked with our PTA to conduct a clothing drive to benefit the Edison Wetlands Earth Day Clothing Drive at Woodbridge Center.  The club collected more than 25 bags of clothing to be reused or recycled.  

Thanks to the idea of one of the students the Community Service Club collected and donated over 2,000 gently-used books for an organization called Books Have Wings.  Their mission is to provide books for children of all ages in Morgan County, Tennessee.  There are ten schools in this county nestled deep in the Appalachian Mountains and books have been collected for children from pre-k through high school.

The Community Service Club recenatly enrolled our school in the Elmer’s Glue Crew Recycling Program. Our students use many glue sticks and bottles each day.  Instead of throwing them in the trash, they clean them out to be recycled. Once they collect 250 empty glue sticks or glue bottles, they can recycle them. 

The enthusiasm and caring spirit of this group has opened the eyes of our school community to the world around them. They have seen in a very short time what it means to help others and how simple these acts can be. Through their efforts they are demonstrating what a great impact simple acts have on others. Isn’t that the biggest lesson of all?