When thinking about my third project, I knew I wanted to do something that involved with giving back to our community. Homelessness among veterans is an issue in the United States. Roughly 40,056 veterans are homeless and nearly 1.4 million veterans are at risk of becoming homeless. My friend Kali and I joined forces to help spread awareness and give back to our local homeless veteran center in York, PA.
Thinking Skill:
Reasoning
Our third thinking skill is reasoning. Reasoning can be taken into different ideas and generated, to think and understand something or to persuade a topic. As a group, we decided we wanted to give reasons why we need to help and end homelessness among veterans. We planned and thought hard about what we could do locally and what we can do as a state, as well as a nation. Although we are starting small, we hope that it was just enough to spread awarneess to the people around us and to gain knowledge about this issue. We listed many reasons of why we need to spread awareness for this issue.
English
The Writing Pieces
For English, we had three pieces of writing. The main, final, product was an argumentive essay written by Kali and edited by myself and other Apollo Students. The second was a letter written by both Kali and I for the donations we collected. And the last was a letters written by Mrs. Stanzel's first grade students at Stony Brook.
The argumentive essay talked about the key points of homelessness among veterans, veteran homelessness in PA, many statistics, and what we can do to give back. This essay was written very well and informative to those who might not have known what is going on with veterans becoming homeless. It spread overall awareness and knowledge about this issue. To read the essay, click the file download below.
The argumentive essay talked about the key points of homelessness among veterans, veteran homelessness in PA, many statistics, and what we can do to give back. This essay was written very well and informative to those who might not have known what is going on with veterans becoming homeless. It spread overall awareness and knowledge about this issue. To read the essay, click the file download below.
argumentive_essay.pdf |
With our donations, we wanted to include a letter from ourselves for the veterans to read. The letter started out by thanking the veterans for their service and how we will never forget, forever grateful for them. The second paragraph had mentioned Central York High School that collected the donations for the veterans. The third paragraph included what we made for the veterans, something personal for them to have from the heart. And the last paragraph is wishing the best of luck. To read the letter, click the file download below.
thank_you_letter.pdf |
Every day, I go to placement. Placement is where I intern with a teacher at one of our schools in the district. I go to Mrs. Stanzel's first grade class at Stony Brook. I had all the kids write a letter to the veterans in the shelter. I showed them an example and had them write. I let them have a free range of what they would like to say to the veterans. After they wrote the letters, I let them color a picture for the veterans. They all had a lot of fun writing and drawing for the veterans, and I just hope it brings a smile to the veterans faces. To view the letters, scroll through the slideshow below. All are not included, just a few.
Art:
Journals
Both Kali and I sat down and had a long talk about what we wanted to include in the donations. We wanted something personal that the veterans can always keep with them. After brainstorming many ideas, we came to the agreement of making journals. We made 4 different type of journals. Two journals were similar to each other. We wanted to have two different types of self journals but with similar pages added. Another journal was "The Many Book Of Questions," and the last journal was all about goals.
The reason we wanted to have 4 was to give them options and to help them focus on an area that they needed the most. The two self journals had a mix of journal styles. Writin prompts, games, coloring in, this or that questions, etc. It kind of gave the veterans a time for themselves to unwind and relax when filling out the journals.
At the end of one of the journal styles was resource pages. It listed 5 different restaurants in the area, with a map, that gave military discounts. Another section had a list of jobs with descriptions of companies hiring, we made sure it gave equal opportunities to veterans. We also made sure to include places where veterans can purchase clothing and other home items needed, such as Boscovs, Goodwill, and The Salvation Army. And the last section was a list of events in York, PA with a calendar. This area has fun events that is worth checking out! From tree lightings, to jazz nights, to special music performances in York, such as Kayla Kroh!
The Many Book Of Questions had questions that would self reflect on situations and make them think. It asked about their goals, what they would say to their younger self, their hopes, what makes them happy, etc. There are 30 questions within the book that will make them think and write expressively.
The Goal Journal had different prompt goals for them finish. From self goals to daily goals to goals they have in the future. It also included a checklist and a self reflection page for them to come back to and reflect on the goals they have completed. This goal journal is to help spread motivation and positivity to the veterans.
We created our journals on pages and printed it in different sizes when finished. We made rough draft journals. The covers were on chipboard and we modpodge photos and words the kids had on their letters and binned the journals together by string. We used these rough draft journals to make changes and show the changes. As well as to set an example of how we would like the journals to turn out. We will be sending our journals to a company, such as Staples, to print and bind the journals together, professionally.
The reason we wanted to have 4 was to give them options and to help them focus on an area that they needed the most. The two self journals had a mix of journal styles. Writin prompts, games, coloring in, this or that questions, etc. It kind of gave the veterans a time for themselves to unwind and relax when filling out the journals.
At the end of one of the journal styles was resource pages. It listed 5 different restaurants in the area, with a map, that gave military discounts. Another section had a list of jobs with descriptions of companies hiring, we made sure it gave equal opportunities to veterans. We also made sure to include places where veterans can purchase clothing and other home items needed, such as Boscovs, Goodwill, and The Salvation Army. And the last section was a list of events in York, PA with a calendar. This area has fun events that is worth checking out! From tree lightings, to jazz nights, to special music performances in York, such as Kayla Kroh!
The Many Book Of Questions had questions that would self reflect on situations and make them think. It asked about their goals, what they would say to their younger self, their hopes, what makes them happy, etc. There are 30 questions within the book that will make them think and write expressively.
The Goal Journal had different prompt goals for them finish. From self goals to daily goals to goals they have in the future. It also included a checklist and a self reflection page for them to come back to and reflect on the goals they have completed. This goal journal is to help spread motivation and positivity to the veterans.
We created our journals on pages and printed it in different sizes when finished. We made rough draft journals. The covers were on chipboard and we modpodge photos and words the kids had on their letters and binned the journals together by string. We used these rough draft journals to make changes and show the changes. As well as to set an example of how we would like the journals to turn out. We will be sending our journals to a company, such as Staples, to print and bind the journals together, professionally.
Self In The Modern World:
Newspaper
My first intinal thought before making the product for history was, how will I spread awareness? I needed to do something that will support and give my reasons. I decided on writing a newspaper after thinking about the many possible choices I had. The newspaper supported 4 articles, with a cover that thanked the veterans.
The first article was a brief overview of the topic, Ending Homelessness Among Veterans. This article gave many statistcs to support the reasons and issues of homelessness with veterans. The second article talked about homelessness in Pennyslvania, and then went into about Mr. Sandy's Homeless Veteran Center. It also provided a list of what the center asks for in donations. The third article was about the struggles that homeless veterans struggle with and provided statistics to support it. The last paragraph supported the over all newspaper of how we all can get involved to end homelessness among veterans. It started locally, went to state wide, and then to nationwide.
To read the article, click the file download below.
The first article was a brief overview of the topic, Ending Homelessness Among Veterans. This article gave many statistcs to support the reasons and issues of homelessness with veterans. The second article talked about homelessness in Pennyslvania, and then went into about Mr. Sandy's Homeless Veteran Center. It also provided a list of what the center asks for in donations. The third article was about the struggles that homeless veterans struggle with and provided statistics to support it. The last paragraph supported the over all newspaper of how we all can get involved to end homelessness among veterans. It started locally, went to state wide, and then to nationwide.
To read the article, click the file download below.
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The Donations
For two weeks, we had a donation bin set up in the upstairs 600 wing at our school. We hung up flyers around the school and collected many donations. We got a total of 35 donations!