Ward Elementary Students Write Thank-You Cards for School Staff; Cards for People in Service Coming Next

Teoni Ingram

This morning, members of the Student Service Club at Ward Elementary School created holiday thank-you cards to let such people as members of the custodial and cafeteria staffs know how much they appreciate them.

Fourth-grader Teoni Ingram was among those who created a card for members of the custodial staff. What does she appreciate about them?

“When somebody throws up, they have to clean up and that’s just disgusting,” Teoni said.

Nyla Hooper

Other students made similar points in their cards. A number of students – including third-grader Nyla Hooper – made cards for Pam Burch, who is the day porter at the school and oversees the YMCA’s before- and-after-school program. That means she starts her day at 6:30 a.m. with the before-school program, switches to her custodial responsibilities during the school day, works with the after-school program and then does more custodial work before heading home at 6:30 p.m.

Third-grader Haelee Williams made a card for Principal Wendy Brewington.

The holiday cards served as something of a warm-up for the next project: students throughout the school writing holiday cards and letters to people in the service stationed overseas. Guidance counselor Jessica Ceglowski – students call her Miss C – is working with an organization called A Million Thanks, and, next Thursday – the day before school gets out for the holidays – she will gather the cards and letters and send them to A Million Thanks.

“We going to get as many letters – cards – as we can,” Ceglowski said to the students. “We want them to feel really, really special.”

Ceglowski and teachers Robin Harden and Kristy Franklin serve as advisors for the club. The club meets before the regular school day starts, and Harden arrived after the meeting had started because she stopped to pick up Krispy Kreme doughnuts as a holiday-meeting treat. When Ceglowski told the students that doughnuts were on the way, many went “OOOHHH!”

Students with a few of the food items

Ward students are also in the midst of a holiday canned food drive for the Clemmons Food Pantry. They already have nearly 1,000 items. “These kids have worked so hard on this project,” said Harden, who teaches fourth grade.

Tyler Eisenbraun was proud to point out that his class – Stephanie Payne’s third-grade class – has collected the most items so far, putting them in the lead for the pizza lunch that goes to the class that collects the most. Tyler was making his card at the same table as his twin sister, Haley.

Noah Bowman

Nathan Stanley

Gabriel Vargas

At another table, second-grader Gabriel Vargas, fifth-grader Nathan Stanley and fifth-grader Noah Bowman were making cards. Noah is the vice president of the club. 

Students at Ward work on one project after the other. 

They just finished up collecting items that would be useful to the Forsyth Humane Society. This is the second year they have done that. The idea came from fifth-grader Arianna Burnette.  Coming up after the holidays is making placemats for people living in a retirement community.

At the end of the meeting, the students sang a leadership song that Franklin had written. She likes to write a new song each year and is particularly satisfied with how this year’s song turned out. The song “I Am a Leader” includes the lines “I help others and I make a difference in this world.”

“They love having a little song at the end,” said Franklin, who is an Exceptional Children resource teacher.

As the students headed off to class, Ceglowski found Burch and gave her the cards that students had made for her.

Pam Burch with cards from students