What a way for students to give back to the community! Students at a suburban middle school wanted to raise money and donate those funds to a local group, and Cluster Tutoring is the grateful recipient.
Nancy Thomas is a first-year tutor at Cluster. She also has taught English Language Arts at George Washington Middle School in Lyons for six years and is the sponsor of the school’s Student Council.
Each year, the students raise money for an outside group. This year, one of the students asked Nancy about her own volunteer activities at Cluster Tutoring, and the students chose that as the school’s fundraising focus. The theme was “Patriots CLUSTER together for a common cause.” (As you might suspect, the nickname for George Washington Middle School is the Patriots.)
The students held a week of events in late March to raise money:
- Monday: The school held an open gym where students paid $1 each to play basketball during lunch periods.
- Tuesday-Thursday: Students purchased $1 raffle tickets for gift cards.
- Friday: Out of Uniform Day: Students paid $1 to dress in regular clothes instead of a school uniform.
- All week: With a $3 donation, students could request a song to be played during morning announcements.
Nancy said the entire student body of 800 students got involved in the project. “The students were excited to raise $600,” she said. The most successful days were the “Out of Uniform Day” and the open gym.
“This is the first year we raised money for Cluster Tutoring, but we would like to make it an annual project,” she added. About 25 students are involved in Student Council.
Nancy tutors a fifth grader, Lena. This summer will be her second year teaching at Cluster’s Summer Reading Program.
“My students at GWMS wanted to give back and help other students their age, so this was a great opportunity for them to raise funds and donate to a local organization,” she said.
Cluster Tutoring would like to deliver a big THANK YOU to the students of George Washington Middle School for their donation. Go Patriots!
