YAC became an intergenerational service council. http://www.casady.org/podium/default.aspx?t=29893&rc=0. It
stood for You-nite A Community. Its mission was to motivate Cyclones to find
their passion to help our local, national or global communities and support
their efforts.
When? Where? How many times did YAC meet?
YAC met six times in
2011 and four in 2012. From September to January: Mondays during B-block in conflict with STUCO, Environmental Club and Advisories. From January to May: Fridays during B-Block in conflict with the sport schedule. Students received
service hours for participating in meetings aiming to support or implement service
projects. Hours were certified at
an assessment meeting in January and YAC members were requested to make appointments for final reflection and certification of hours in May. Hours from January to May are still to be reflected.
What did YAC do?
August-September 2011
The first YAC project was the International Day of Peace. It was a school wide awareness of the 11 days of global unity(http://www.wetheworld.org/) from September 11 to September 21 (International Day of Peace: http://internationaldayofpeace.org/) . YAC had a SKYPE conversation with International Day of Peace creator, Jeremy Gilley about his global initiative PEACE ONE DAY (http://peaceoneday.org/).
YAC
and the service-learning office collaborated with the Oklahoma City
University’s International Day of Peace Festival. Pinwheels in Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese were made in UD
Foreign language classes and planted around our lake the morning of 9/21 http://pinwheels-4-peaceinlanguageclasses.blogspot.com/). Pinwheels were donated to the OCU festival
in the afternoon. The Casady Pinwheels
found homes at non-profit organizations around town. Khadija'12 was the YAC
facilitator for the International Day of Peace Festival at OCU. She planted pinwheels and distributed Six
Billion Paths to Peace t-shirts at the OCU festival. YAC connected to the UD chorus and orchestra and arranged for
inspirational chapel performances in honor of the International Day of Peace.
The Program Director and the President of San Francisco based Shinnyo-en
Foundation visited with YAC members
around campus on 9/22. The Shinnyo-en Foundation provided Six Billion Paths to
Peace (http://www.sef.org/projects/six-billion-paths-to-peace/)
t-shirts for all divisions in 2011 and for Middle, Lower and Primary division’s
out of uniform in 2012 in celebration of the International Day of Peace (http://serviceapathtopeace.blogspot.com/). The service-learning office brought Hope Trunks to all divisions from the Oklahoma City Memorial Museum and the 5th grade classes made "May Peace Prevail on Earth" mandalas and planted a seedling of the survival tree in front of the middle division on 9/21.
October-November
The second YAC project was the Casady Cans Do Food
Drive, Nov 7-11, a collaborative effort between YAC and STUCO http://cyclonesagainsthunger.blogspot.com/
. Chandler'12 and Zainab'12 facilitated this project. Per YAC
request, Casady service-learning provided transportation for Cyclones to
volunteer @ the Food Bank on Saturdays from the first week of October until
November 12 when Cyclones sorted donations from the Students Against Hunger
Food Drive. Casady Upper Division donated 5,052 cans and $563.07 providing
6,368 meals to hungry Oklahomans during the winter time. On November 12, 2011, YAC and OKC volunteers @ the Food Bank packed 770 cases of food
with 22,438 meals for hungry Oklahomans resulting from the citywide Students Against Hunger Food Drive.
In October, YAC members also collaborated with the girls’ volleyball team’s Dig Pink Volleyball (http://www.side-out.org/tag/dig-pink-volleyball/) project collecting over $3,000 to help breast cancer research. Cassidy'12 was the YAC facilitator of that collaboration.
December
January
REFLECTION: The first three YAC meetings of 2012 took place in the
month of January. YAC reflected hours and planned our MLK Day of service (http://mlkday.gov/). Our guest speakers the week
before MLK Day were Casady youth leaders with inspiring service projects:
Knitting for Troops, Sow Love, and Land of Children, Global Education
Service-Learning Project in Ollantaytambo, Peru. YAC also hosted MD and
UD speeches by Dr. Cheryl Steele on steward leadership. Dr. Steele was hosted by YAC member, Emily B'12.
MLK DAY: YAC collaborated with Chandler and her Knitting for Troops project and offered the opportunity to the Upper and Middle Divisions of making care packages for soldiers from 9:00-11:00 at the Student Center on January 16, MLK Day. 26 people participated in the MLK Day 2012 service opportunity. Chandler sent over $3,000 in carefully selected goodies to Oklahoma soldiers in Afganistan with inspirational notes made by MD and LD students in each package. Chandler received heartwarming thank you notes from soldiers from time to time. Her project was made possible due to grants from Do Something.org. In April, Chandler was surprised as the receipient of a $20,000 scholarship to college from Do Something and Footlocker Scholar Athlete Program.
February
February meetings
were very short, but brought new opportunities for YAC to
make a difference. Cassidy'12
hosted Aly Akers, a former state, regional, national,
and world champion baton twirler. She is currently the feature twirler at OSU,
where she is a Business/Pre-Law major and is also Miss OSU. Aly will compete in
the 2012 Miss Oklahoma Pageant in June. Her platform for Miss Oklahoma is P.A.S.T. – Prevent and Stop Tormenting,
is an anti-bullying campaign. She speaks to schools throughout the state
on behalf of P.A.S.T. Aly spoke to the Upper Division during Chapel. Aly also shared a few
minutes with YAC students who
attended the YAC meeting after a YAC picture with Aly was taken. YAC made Aly feel so welcomed, she
stated that if she were a teen, Casady would have been her high school of
choice. More information about Aly’s
project at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/PAST-Prevent-And-Stop-Tormenting/162854593764584.
In February, Khadija'12
and Zainab'12 decided to collaborate with the Respect Diversity Foundation
Annual Symbol Exhibit. They reflected on making a mural depicting YAC's
interpretation of the Charter for Compassion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wktlwCPDd94
. The project did not become a reality because
the administration did not grant permission for YAC students to meet
3-lunch times and B-blocks to view the Charter, discuss ideas, and create the
mural under the facilitation of artist and CEO of the Silence Foundation, Mrs.
Patt Webb. The service-learning office transfered Mrs. Patt Webb's services to Mrs. Crossno's 7th grade classes and provided a $500 grant for the MD SEE Program since 7th grade English and History students were involved in this service-learning project in the curriculum.
Finally
in February, YAC collaborated with
STUCO at the Make A Wish dodge ball tournament. See pictures and videos of the tournament at
http://casadyyac.blogspot.com/2012/03/stucos-make-wish-b-day-party-for.html. YAC entered TEAM PEACE with proceeds
generated by the Fall Fest fundraiser.
Service-Learning bought food for TEAM PEACE members to support STUCO
fundraiser for Make a Wish at the tournament.
YAC also sold left over candy from the Make a Wish fundraiser at
the UD and MD during A and B blocks. Blake'13 was the YAC leader of this collaboration.
April
National NYLC Conference: In the
month of April, YAC member Salman'14, junior Alex and STUCO member Shiva'14 attended the NYLC Conference in Minneapolis.
http://casadyyac.blogspot.com/2012/04/national-service-learning-conference.html .
The focus of the conference for the Casady group were attendance to academic rigor service-learning, and youth leadership in peace and green initiatives to implement at Casady next year.
National Volunteer Week-April 15-22: YAC presented a full set of activities to the administration to turn National Volunteer Week into a fundraising week similar to BALTO or SWINE week in other schools. The ideas were generated by freshmen YAC members under the leadership of Jessica'15 and Rebekah'13. YAC was only allowed an off of uniform and an ice cream celebration on Friday during B-block. The Service-Learning Office ordered and delivered Presidential Service Awards on Friday, April 20th. The CPO and Environmental club sponsored the celebration as students were also encouraged to ride a bike to school or carpool as part of Earth Day celebration. Zainab'12 was the YAC facilitator of this connection.
Global Youth Service Day-Earth Day; April 20-22: As part of YAC's celebration of Global Youth Service Day, Salman'14 represented YAC and the Environmental Club at Earth Day Nichols Hills Festival. Salman advocated "green living" by motivating participants to take carbon footprint surveys. YAC members also volunteered at Rebuilding Together Work Day and the YWCA race to stop sexual violence during Global Youth Service Day. Finally, YAC collaborate with YAC member Seondre'15 Eagle Scout Project as he replaced 18 windows at a Rebuilding Together home. http://casadyyac.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-service-in-okc-community.html
In May,
YAC collaborated with Emily B.'12 and her Relay for Life Project. http://casadyyac.blogspot.com/2012/05/relay-for-life-2012.html.
Salman gave the YAC Relay team its name: You-nited Against
Cancer. Service Learning made a
financial contribution and invited teachers and YAC members without a
team to join. Salman, Mrs. Clay, Mrs.
Linn, Mr. Stonestreet, Mrs. Seitter, Miss Detering, Mrs. Small and the security
guards on duty attended the Relay for a few hours or the whole night sponsored
by the YAC team. The 2012 Relay
for Life surpassed its goal of $30,000 for cancer research. The Relay 2012 had 233
participants, 23 teams and
raised $32,174.
Also in
May, senior YAC members made celebratory goodie bags for Presidential
Award Winners led by Zainab'12 who made lovely bows for each bag. The goodies in the bags were courtesy of the
CPO and were delivered on May 16, 2012.
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