BROCKWAY, Pa. (EYT) – Matt Holt’s land management class at Brockway Area Junior-Senior High School is leaving the classroom to help its community.
[PICTURED ABOVE: Matt Holt’s Environmental Management Class: Ethan Freemer, Michael Drall, Austin Pringle, Gabby Resch, and Delaney Wineberg. (Photo by Matt Holt).]
As he did last year, Holt challenged his students to find something in the Brockway area that they could fix or improve.
“It’s a community service project,” Holt said. “They have to come up with the project and manage it. If they haven’t done their graduation requirement, this does count.”
The process involves brainstorming a project, pitching it to Mr. Holt, making sure everyone involved agrees to the project, then executing the project. The goal is to manage the project, so the students need to find people to help them.
“Usually, I’m pretty open about what they do,” Holt said. “I want them to manage the project, too, and not just do it. I ask them to involve other people.”
The involvement of others can be small. The students did the majority of the work themselves, but brought in others for little pieces of the project to fulfill the management requirement. Inspiration for the projects came from all over, and some have already completed their work.
For example, the empty sign post by Advanced Disposal will soon have a decoration.
“I’m making a sign for Mr. George Miller, former ag teacher here,” Delaney Wineberg said. “It’ll had the FFA emblem in the middle and ‘Welcome to Brockway’ around it. Mr. Miller wanted this for a while. He really wanted the FFA emblem in the middle to point out the chapter’s work in the town.”
Wineberg and her helpers will make the sign out of plywood and painted blue, the gold of the FFA emblem, and red. They will clear-coat the final product to preserve it. She hopes to have it in place by spring.
Another sign maker decided to replace a cemetery sign.
“My grandparents came to me and said the Munderf Cemetery sign needed redone,” explained Ethan Freemer. “I’m going to laser-engrave the sign, put posts up, and then we’ll do a flower bed underneath. The church needs it. I think that if there’s more signs and we improve the structure, people will come to that church.”
Other students are getting involved in some landscaping.
Gabby Resch already completed her project at the Brockwayville Depot.
“I did landscaping at the depot,” she said. “I cleaned out the flower beds and got everything ready for winter. In the spring, we’ll lay mulch and get it ready for flowers.”
“I’m doing bush trimming and removal at the Hormtown Community Center,” Michael Drall said. “I noticed that the center needed something done to make it more inviting. I hope that it looks like a place where people want to be.”
Austin Pringle is connecting with Pheasants Forever to work on habitat for animals. Pheasants Forever is a nonprofit organization that focuses on conservation as well as passing on the heritage of hunting.
“I’m planning on planting trees at the game lands,” Pringle said. “I want to create additional habitats for the animals there. I’m a hunter. I’m talking to the Game Commission and Pheasants Forever to work out the details. I’m still in the planning phase.”
Holt said that the motivation to complete the project goes beyond the grades. He said it is a chance for the students to connect to their community as well as show that they can keep their word.
“It looks really bad on them if they don’t complete their projects,” Holt said. “It’s also really bad on their grade as it is part of the final. I expect the projects to be finished, though. These kids have a good group of ideas. They’re doing projects that are very important to them.”
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