Cache Middle School students randomly volunteer to help
(AP) — All 140 students Cache Middle School students in Wendy DeIorio's eighth-grade English classes were recently given an unusual homework assignment -- one that had nothing to do with adjectives or pronouns, or reading literature — community service projects that involved a random volunteer act.
Some of those volunteer actions included picking up trash, offering to mow lawns or even volunteering to walk a dog for free.
The project sent them out into their community, talking to their families and neighbors and partnering with classmates and friends to see what random acts of kindness they could do.
The project began four years ago as a September 11 project to honor victims and their families on the anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks.
Students in this year's class went out individually and together to clean up trash from an area creek, donated clothes, picked up trash from city parks, planted a tree on campus, spent time at area nursing homes and even donated money to online charity organizations.
Muse and Rees chose Special Olympics as their project in honor of her younger brother, Brennan, 7, who was found to be autistic at age 18 months.
Rees and Muse sold their cookies in the school cafeteria during their 20-minute lunch period and raised $30.