Hanesbrands Donates Thousands of Box Tops to Mineral Springs Elementary School

As part of the Box Tops for Education program, Hanesbrands employees collected and donated 827 Box Tops to Mineral Springs Elementary School. The company is an affiliate of the Box Top program so the company donated an additional 5,000 Box Tops.

Box Tops are box-top shaped coupons that appear on a wide variety of products. Each Box Top is worth 10 cents to a school.

“We plan to use these to purchase items for our Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) store,” said school counselor Mike Nuckolls. “Students earn Bulldog Bucks for following school procedures and are allowed to shop in our Doghouse Store each quarter to buy everything from toys to clothes to home goods with their bucks.”

Principal Debra Gladstone said, "It is with the generous support from corporations such as Hanesbrands that we are able to move forward in a positive direction knowing that we are able to do even more toward our goal of providing the optimal education for all students. Hanesbrands' generous support is a great investment in our greatest natural resource and that is our wonderful children who represent our communities of the future."

Tim Ronan of Hanesbrands said “Hanes is proud to offer Box Tops on packages of adult and children’s Hanes underwear and socks that families buy every day. In addition, we are proud of how our local Hanesbrands employees get involved through company-wide Box Top collection drives to benefit local schools like Mineral Springs Elementary. The reception we received from the school administration, teachers, parents and students was phenomenal, and we are really excited to support the Positive Behavior initiative with their students.”

Hanesbrands presented the Box Tops to the school at the PTA meeting on April 15.

For more information about the program, go to Box Tops 

East Forsyth Middle Teacher Heading to California for Camp that Promotes Sustainability and Smart Energy

This summer, Corie Maffett, who teaches at East Forsyth Middle School, will be spending a week with 70 other educators from around the world at the Honeywell Green Boot Camp.

The camp is designed to help middle school teachers create an atmosphere in their classrooms where ideas about sustainability and smart energy use can thrive.

“I am humbled to have been selected to attend Honeywell's Green Boot Camp,” Maffett said. “I am anxious to meet other teachers from the United States and abroad that share my interest in teaching sustainability and environmental consciousness to middle school students. I also look forward to sharing what I learn at Green Boot Camp with my students as they are the future stewards of the environment!”

Maffett will join teachers from 13 countries and 31 other states at the five-day camp being held from June 22 through June 27. More than 450 teachers applied to attend the camp in San Diego, Calif. Honeywell picks up the cost of the camp and pays for transportation.

You will find more information about the camp at Green Boot Camp

Volunteer at Mineral Springs Elementary Receives Governor's Volunteer Service Award

Diana Heatwole, who volunteers at Mineral Springs Elementary School, received the 2014 Governor's Volunteer Service Award in the senior category for Forsyth County from HandsOn Northwest North Carolina.

“We cannot thank Mrs. Heatwole enough for all of her contributions to our school,” said school counselor Mike Nuckolls. “She truly cares for our students and staff. Whether she is tutoring a student, copying papers for the grade level, or bringing homemade cupcakes for her class, her humble and loving presence is an inspiration to us all.”

Here is an excerpt from the nomination form:

There is almost nothing that Diana Heatwole enjoys more than spending time in the classroom with her students.

A volunteer for the past three years at Mineral Springs Elementary, Diana spends 8 hours each day working to assist teachers in the classroom and providing numerous kinds of student support services.

A retired state employee, Diana has already provided 910 hours of service to the school in the 2013-14 school year and will probably match the 989 hours she gave last year! Working within a specific fourth- grade classroom, she does everything from tutoring students to copying and compiling teacher and student work materials.

Diana’s biggest impact, however, probably comes from the relationships she builds with individual students, as she provides personal attention to at-risk students, and leads small group tutoring sessions in reading and math.

For one specific student, Diana has even become a surrogate grandmother, supporting him by buying school clothes and supplies, helping him with school projects, taking him on outings and sharing her love of board games.

The presentation was made May 14 at Salem College. HandsOn is an organization that connects volunteers with nonprofit organizations that could benefit from their help. For more information, go to HandsOn 

North Forsyth Students, Faculty and Families Pack 10,000 Meals for People in Need

Working with the Stop Hunger Now organization, the Key Club and Rho Kappa Honor Society at North Forsyth High School sponsored a "Meal Packing Party" and packed 10,000 meals for people in need. 

“Over the past year, the two clubs successfully raised $2,500, which was used to pay for the food and shipping materials that were used to pack 10,000 meals,” said teacher Victoria Block. “At the event, 35 club members, faculty and parents volunteered from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday May 10th to pack 10,000 meals. The majority of the meals will be sent to the ‘focus areas,’ which is currently Haiti and various countries in Africa. 

“During the event, the Stop Hunger Now representative shared some information with us. He stated that there are over 7 billion people in the world today.  Of that 7 billion people, there are an estimated 800 million that are considered to be starving according to the United Nations.” 

Stop Hunger Now is an international hunger relief agency. Its mission is "to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-saving aid to the world's most vulnerable." 

The "Meal Packing Party" was held in the Cartwright Gym at North Forsyth. 

For more information, go to Stop Hunger Now 

  

Reynolds High Students Create Portraits of Children in Orphanage in Mexico

Students in Emily Beach-Munday’s Drawing 2 class at Reynolds High School participated in The Memory Project. Each student received a photograph of a child in an orphanage in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

“Our students created portraits of the children using oil pastel,” Beach-Munday said. “Students really grew attached to the children through the art-making process. They took pride in the project knowing that it would be going to bring hope and happiness to children that they had never met. The project was funded by the generosity of Mrs. Angell Caudill as a gift to our students before her retirement this spring.”

Caudill taught history, and, from 2007 to 2012, she was the Arts Magnet Director at Reynolds.

Once those portraits were done, they were delivered to the children in Mexico. A video was made of the children receiving their portraits and individual photographs were taken. Participation fees were used to help support the orphanages art therapy program.

When Ben Schumaker, the founder and director of the Memory Project, sent the video and photos to Beach-Munday, his note said, “I think you will also be pleased to know that we were able to make a collective financial donation of $1,650 to help support the orphanage’s art therapy program, thanks in part to the participation fees you contributed. So please be proud that you helped to provide that gift along with the portraits.”

This is the third year that students at Reynolds participated in the project. Beach-Munday has been working with the Memory Project since 2005.

For more photos of Reynolds students and their portraits, go to Reynolds photos

For more information about the project, go to Memory Project

Philo-Hill Students Celebrate Earth Day with Innovative Project

In the May 15 issue of The Chronicle, reporter Layla Garms writes about an Earth Day project undertaken by a teacher and students at Philo-Hill Magnet Academy. Here is an excerpt:  

Paper grocery bags colorfully decorated with environmentally-friendly images and messages by Philo-Hill Magnet School students were delivered to the Waughtown Street Food Lion on Wednesday, April 23 – the day after Earth Day.

“During the week of Earth Day, the customers, when they come in, they can select these bags to take home,” explained Juanita Ramsey, a Philo-Hill business education teacher whose seventh and eighth grade students designed the bags. “We’re hoping the message goes out into our community that we need to save our planet.”

Luis Caraballo, Carmen Toledo and Jelisa Workman joined their teacher at the Food Lion store – which donated plain paper bags for students to use as canvases – to deliver the artsy creations.

Carmen, a seventh-grader, said she hopes the project will inform community residents that “many of the things they do can harm everything around them and they need to be more cleaner about how they treat the earth.”

For the full story go to Winston-Salem Chronicle

Local Students Participate in Art Program at Diggs Gallery

By Xavier Webster, a student at Northwest Middle School

In the May 8 issue of The Chronicle is a story about local students participating in an art program at Diggs Gallery.

Here is an excerpt:  

Local students spent part of a recent Saturday at Winston-Salem State University’s Diggs Gallery for “Discovering Math through Art.”

The program, led by artist Vandorn Hinnant, was designed to introduce young people to the geometry-rich works of art by North Carolina artists John and James Biggers and the other artists featured in WSSU’s public art collection.

For the full story, go to Winston-Salem Chronicle

Reynolds High School Student Receives Honorable Mention in 2014 Artizens Competition

"The Waves" by Ruth Moffatt

Ruth Moffatt, who goes to Reynolds High School, received the Honorable Mention Award in the 2014 Artizens competition. The title of her piece is “The Waves.”

The award came with $300 for Moffatt and another $300 for the art department at Reynolds.  

Each year, Piedmont Federal Savings Bank invites students in area high schools to enter a work of art in the bank's Artizens competition. The art pieces selected for consideration in the 2014 competition were displayed in area branches before the Artizens Gala.

Members of the community were invited to vote for the People’s Choice award at each branch. Moffatt’s art piece also won the People’s Choice Award from the Stratford Branch.

The overall winner of the competition was Holy Simmons, who is a student at North Davidson High School.  She also won the People’s Choice from the Southpark Branch. The title of her piece is “The Dogs.”  

You can see the art that was displayed in the branches and find out more about the competition by going to Artizens

Hanes Magnet Recognized at International Conference

Natalie Norman and Brian Mendenhall

Hanes Magnet School has received the Program Excellence Award from the International Technology & Engineering Educator Association (ITEEA).

The Technology Education Program at Hanes is one of only 30 programs in the world to receive the award. The teachers for this program at Hanes are Brian Mendenhall & Natalie Norman. They teach the Project Lead the Way Program and coach the Hanes Dragon Technology Student Association.

Sponsored by the ITEEA and Paxton/Patterson, the Program Excellence Award is one of the highest honors given to technology education classroom teachers on the elementary, middle or high school levels.  It is presented in recognition of outstanding contributions to the profession and students. Schools from all over the United States and around the world compete for this honor.

Each year the Program Excellence winners are recognized at the association's conference, which is the largest conference for technology educators in the world. This year's conference was held in Orlando, Fla. 

Student Art in May 2014 Issue of Forsyth Family Magazine

By Karla De La Cruz

By Kimberly Rodriquez

By John Morgan

By Joseph Elam

On Page 93 of the May 2014 issue of Forsyth Family magazine, you will find art by four Winston-Salem/Forsyth County students.

Karla De La Cruz is a first-grader at Sedge Garden Elementary School. Her art teacher is Tara Muzzy.

Kimberly Rodriguez is in third grade at Hall-Woodward Elementary School. Her art teacher is Joanna Smith.

John Morgan is a sophomore at East Forsyth High School. His art teacher is Terri Hester.

Joseph Elam is an eighth-grader at Meadowlark Middle School. His art teacher is Elizabeth Miller.