Meredith Students: Working, Fundraising at the Car Wash
Students in the 21CCLC summer program at Meredith Middle School organized a car wash to raise money to support a long-time cafeteria worker.
Wednesday afternoon wasn’t exactly carwash weather but that didn’t stop the kids in a summer program at Meredith Middle School from following through on a promise to help out one of their own in a time of need.
Geri Walker has been a foodservice worker at Meredith since before the students enrolled in the 21st Century Community Learning Center summer program were born. Earlier this year she was diagnosed with ALS, an incurable neuromuscular illness. She has a son, one of her three children who’ve attended Meredith, who’s getting married in the fall. Funds raised through the two-day car wash in a school parking lot will pay for a dress for Geri to wear to the wedding.
Service learning is one of the elements of the 21CCLC curriculum. When the Meredith cohort put heads together at the start of the summer to determine what good causes to lend themselves to, several were chosen. Bracelets are being sold to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Proceeds from a lemonade stand will go to the Red Cross. False mustache sales are aiding the fight against alopecia areata, also known as spot baldness, an autoimmune disease in which hair is lost from some or all areas of the body, usually from the scalp. A student who suffers from the condition will attend Meredith in the fall. Next Tuesday the students will march around the neighborhood to raise awareness about school dropouts. There’s a clothing drive for the homeless and a trellis was built for the butterfly garden. Donations have been collected for the ARL. Online fundraising campaigns further support some of these efforts.
But the carwash was especially close to home, a way to make a personal gesture with an immediate impact.
Hoses were strung together like extension cords to stretch all the way from the building to the steady line of vehicles that turned in off of 47th Street between Madison and Aurora for a bath. Apple polishing is a traditional way for students to ingratiate themselves with teachers. Yesterday at Meredith it was car polishing as a mini-caravan of faculty and passersby, led off by principal David Johns, formed to give the kids the satisfaction of a good deed done.
“Geri is planning to come over and meet with the kids next week to personally thank them,” said teacher and 21CCLC staffer Pam Lonneman. “She wanted to bring them a pizza lunch, but we explained to her that gratitude is the only reward that’s necessary.”
Rosalie Rollins was a longtime colleague of Geri’s before retiring a couple of years ago. The two remain friends and Rosalie dropped by on Wednesday to see what was happening.
“Geri’s a private person who doesn’t like to bother people with her problems,” Rosalie said. “But this will make her feel good. This will boost her spirits.”
One of the hazards inherent in car washing is the risk of getting wet. Especially if the coworker in charge of the hose takes a deliberately scattergun approach to the task. Ben Renwick is a 7th grader at Meredith who’s in his second summer of 21CCLC. He didn’t seem to mind absorbing some of the misguided spray coming from the bed of a pickup truck. In fact, he rather enjoyed it.
“Last summer was fun here, “he said, “but this summer is even better.”
When the last of a stream of shiny cars was back on the road the crew had the satisfaction of a job well done. But the real payoff is next week when the beneficiary of their work comes by to say thanks, not for washing her car, but for helping a sick mother dress up for her son’s wedding.
