S3 E6 - OMS Leaf Raking Project

Each year 8th grade students at Oregon Middle School participate in a leaf raking community service project. Today we’re going to learn a little more about this project from this year’s organizer and a few of our students.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER1: Each year, eighth grade students at Oregon Middle School participate in the Leaf Raking Community Service project. (00:05):
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This proves to be a very rewarding and memorable experience, and today we'regoing to learn a little more about it from this year's organizer and a few of
our students.

SPEAKER2: Welcome to this episode of Inside the OSD podcast, where it's all about the kids. (00:24):
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Here is your host, lifelong educator, and our superintendent, Doctor LeslieBergstrom.

SPEAKER3: We're going to begin by talking with one of our educators and organizers of this year's event. (00:38):
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Could you please start by introducing yourself to our listeners and your roleat OMS?
Sure.

SPEAKER4: My name is Jason Symes and I'm an eighth grade history teacher here at OMS. (00:48):
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SPEAKER3: Thank you. You're one of the coordinators of the project. (00:53):
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Can you talk about how the project works?

SPEAKER4: Sure. So this is a leaf raking project, and it started probably about a dozen years ago with one of our teachers here, jody Carlson, brought the idea from a (00:58):
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place she'd been. She'd been in Bemidji, Minnesota.
Oh, yeah. And so she brought that idea with her when she came, and she said ithad been a really great activity for their kids and their community there, and
thought it would work here in Oregon.

(01:19):
And we've had we've been doing it ever since, minus one year, where it snowedsuper early and the snow never melted.
So we weren't able to rake that year and then a year or two off when-when Covidwas going through.

SPEAKER3: Sure. How do families reach out to say, "I would like my yard raked"? (01:29):
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SPEAKER4: Yeah, absolutely. So we have a list of families that we keep from year to year. (01:34):
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In fact, last year we had a student whose family had been getting raked year toyear in their neighborhood, and she left us a lovely note that we've been raking
their yard for like the last ten years, minus those odd years.
But yeah, that we've been doing it for a long time.

(01:56):
Oh that's

SPEAKER3: nice. So why does it--why is it important to our educators to offer this experience? (01:57):
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SPEAKER4: Um, yeah. Can I actually go back to--to add to that previous thing? (02:01):
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So if people--we do have people join every year as well.

SPEAKER3: That's good. I'm glad it's still an open door. (02:07):
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We have our

SPEAKER4: core list and there are some people, you know, who fought like someone who was getting some landscaping done so they didn't need leaf raking done. (02:08):
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Um, but always too, when-when we've got our groups walking around thecommunity, there's, there's always people who come out and be like, "hey, can
you come help with our yard?"

SPEAKER3: So we always pick (02:22):
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SPEAKER4: Uu a few spontaneously that day, and then we reach out to--to some of our families. (02:24):
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We let them know that we're doing it, and if they have someone in their familythat would benefit from it, we add those on that way, as long as they're within
about a mile and a half to two miles of the middle school and a safe walkingdistance, we've had a few people ask us to walk down the highway, but we--I'm

SPEAKER3: glad we say no to that. We passed (02:44):
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SPEAKER4: on that. Yeah, we pass on those. (02:45):
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SPEAKER3: But it's also kind of fun to find out that the list might have its core, but it's still ever evolving. (02:47):
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It is.

SPEAKER4: It is. Yeah. So if you know somebody who would benefit, you can reach out to me and I can add them to the list already for next year. (02:52):
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SPEAKER3: That's super nice. (02:59):
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So why is this important for for educators to offer this?

SPEAKER4: Yeah, I think it's really important because one of the lessons that we, we talk about is how good it feels to do things for others. (03:04):
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Right? And I'm sure that the kids here, they're gonna they're gonna feel thatthey're gonna have had that experience.
And that's something that we want kids to see and feel, because it's kind of Ithink it's one of those things once you've helped somebody and you've

(03:25):
experienced their gratitude and you've seen their positive reaction to it, itis like a positive drug that you want that feeling again and again, and you can
seek that out. And you can also then know when somebody does something nice foryou, you can show that appreciation to them and know how good you're making them
feel. So it's--it's really about that connection with the community and how weall benefit from it.

(03:47):
It's--it's a win win for everyone involved in the project.

SPEAKER3: So what skills do you see or attitude evolvement do you see over the course of the project? (03:50):
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SPEAKER4: Yeah. Um, you know, the skills of one, leaf raking. (03:57):
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Not all of our kids are natural leaf rakers, so we just have some training withthe rake in some cases.
And there's definitely a sense of teamwork, right?
As you--as you attack the yard.
So get your kids working together.
And also like within my group we talk about different roles that people can do.
Everyone can contribute in their own way.

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We had a student who's dealing with a back injury, so couldn't be raking andcouldn't be hauling things around, so the group worked and schemed really well
to like, find out what ways can we still have that person feel like they're ameaningful part of the group?
And then again, just the skills of dealing with other people and and being outand helping others.
Like, I think that really is a skill to put yourself in a position to helpothers.

(04:42):
And I think that's something that, you know, I talk a lot about things we learnin class.
This is a more important skill probably than, you know, our French and Indianwork and some of those stuff.

SPEAKER3: But I'll say that the middle school in general does a lot of work in supporting kids, and developing the ability to work well in a team. (04:53):
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We do.

SPEAKER4: That's--that's really important. I know seventh grade puts a lot of focus on that with the different teams that they have and that they do their urban (05:01):
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challenge with or go to um, Upham Woods.
Upham woods. Yeah. Thank you.
Uh, and then two, we're we're out working in groups when we're at the, uh, theprairie out at Lerner--Lerner Park.
And it's really important, even in our classes.
I'm sure the kids can attest to this.

(05:23):
And how many classes they're working with.
Small groups.
Uh, they're working with partners.
And again, that's probably one of the best skills we can send them with,because while they may not need that content specific material that we're
teaching, anywhere they go, uh, they're going to be working with other peopleand they're going to need to adapt to what other people need and be able to have

(05:44):
that flexibility that that's taught when you're when you're working with agroup.

SPEAKER3: Absolutely. There are some things that supersede all others, right? (05:48):
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SPEAKER4: Absolutely. (05:52):
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SPEAKER3: So I'm going to move on to our students. (05:53):
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So I'm really excited to talk to you, the eighth graders who are here, who werea part of this experience.
So let's start by having each of you introduce yourself to our listeners.

SPEAKER5: Um, I am William Heft, and I--know you're in eighth grade. (06:06):
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Okay.

SPEAKER6: I'm Deanna Solomon, and I'm an eighth grader at OMS. (06:13):
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SPEAKER3: Thank you. (06:17):
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SPEAKER6: I'm Kelly Raemisch, and I'm an eighth grader at OMS. (06:17):
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SPEAKER3: Thank you, all three of you, for being here today. (06:20):
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So what did you do to get ready for this leaf raking event?
Any one of you wants to pipe in?
Please do.

SPEAKER6: Um, so we would like, go through slides and talk about, like, how it's helping the community and how, like it's important that we help them for (06:30):
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like the people who, like, served or like can't do it themselves.

SPEAKER3: Nice. So you prepared in class? (06:43):
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Yeah.

SPEAKER5: We also had to prepare to bring our rakes and bring the stuff that we need to, like, stay warm and have a fun time because I know (06:47):
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our group brought a radio like speaker.

SPEAKER6: Speaker. (07:02):
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SPEAKER3: That was smart to listen to. (07:03):
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Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER5: Um. Sorry. (07:06):
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SPEAKER6: Especially because we had, uh, one of the longer walks, um, that we had to walk the farthest distance. (07:07):
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And it was definitely, um, better with the speaker.
Um, it was also great when we had our--all of our other classmates with uswalking around.
We just kind of hung out the whole time.

SPEAKER3: Did you dance down the street as you went? (07:26):
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All right. I wish I was there to have seen that.
That sounds like it was actually a lot of fun, and I appreciate that.
You said you had to get gear so that you were warm.
I think that was really important to a big part of preparation.
So thanks for mentioning that.
What was your favorite part about this community service project?

SPEAKER6: Um, my favorite part was seeing all the. (07:50):
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So we did, um, a few houses and some of the houses.
I think like two of them.
There was the owners would come out and they would have these huge smiles ontheir faces and they'd be like, "oh, it looks amazing."
And that was my favorite part, just seeing their faces like light up when theysaw all the raking.

SPEAKER3: Wow. That's exactly what Mr. (08:15):
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Symes was just talking about, right?
How good it feels to give?
That's awesome.

SPEAKER5: Anything? (08:21):
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SPEAKER6: I felt like my favorite part was, like doing something for the people that I couldn't do. (08:22):
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Like the elderlies.
And seeing that.
Like how, like, thankful they were because they couldn't do it themselves.
And it felt good to, like, do something for them, knowing like that.
I'm not getting anything in return, but it'll, like, help them.

SPEAKER5: Thank you. (08:42):
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Yeah, it felt really nice to see them be so happy that the rakes weredone--their yards are done.
And then just to be able to not have to worry about something that might takethem longer than it would take us to do all by themselves.

SPEAKER3: Absolutely. It would take your team. (08:59):
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How long did it take you guys for the average lawn?

SPEAKER6: Um, we did around, like, three lawns. (09:05):
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Um, and we had, like, there was like two of the houses were next to each other,and they were.
So we did both of them at the same time, but it was like a huge they.
Oh I

SPEAKER3: bet. Yeah. (09:18):
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SPEAKER6: Two big lawns. And then we had like a small one. (09:19):
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Um, the big one took us like an hour, an hour and a half ish, and then we hitthe other one on the back or on the way back
in ten minutes. Yeah.
We didn't have a lot of time to do it.
Um, because we had.
It was a long way back, so we had to do that one in like ten minutes.

SPEAKER3: But imagine how long it would have taken them to do it themselves. (09:42):
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When you as a team were able to pull together and do it in an hour.
Just think of how long it would have taken that family to do it without you.
That would have been quite the job.
So I bet they were super grateful.
What's the most important thing you learned from this experience?

SPEAKER5: I think the most important thing we learned from this experience is not to --if we give something, we don't always have to expect to get something in return, (10:04):
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which is also something that you should take into your life as you go forward,because it helps you learn to not always expect something.

SPEAKER6: I think another big key component was like teamwork, especially when you were like trying to figure out, um, how to not make or take (10:23):
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as long doing the yards.
So we had like people on Tarp duty, we had people on rake duty, and then youwould take the rakes and rake all the leaves into the tarp.

SPEAKER3: So organization, how to organize yourselves. (10:44):
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That's cool.

SPEAKER6: Yeah. Like, um. (10:48):
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SPEAKER5: Like sometimes in life you can do stuff that's like (10:51):
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SPEAKER6: kind like without having to get something back. (10:54):
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Like you don't always have to get something in return to like be nice to peopleor like help them out.

SPEAKER3: That's a really beautiful lesson. (11:03):
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So, um, how do you think you'll use these things that you've learned in thefuture?

SPEAKER6: Especially when you, um, get your job and if it's like you're working with other people, it's a good way to like, know, like even if you (11:12):
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don't know the person or, um, like, yeah, you don't know stuff about them.
Like, you just gotta help them and like, speak up if they won't speak up andlike, make sure you know stuff about them and like, that's just I feel like

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that's what teamwork is like.
You gotta know stuff about them so that it's easier or more fun to work withthem.
Nice.

SPEAKER5: And also like being prepared is also something because then, you know, if you check beforehand like what's the weather? (11:46):
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It would help you know what to have on and helping you where the items.
I'll keep you on.

SPEAKER6: Great. (12:03):
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SPEAKER3: What do you want to add? (12:04):
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SPEAKER6: Um. The like, giving back can be fun. (12:05):
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That like, you always don't have to complain about something and that if youwork in a team, like stuff gets done faster and it's easier.

SPEAKER3: Those are amazing lessons, you guys. (12:16):
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What advice do you have for next year's eighth graders who are doing thisproject?
What would you tell them?

SPEAKER6: Um. Think of like, the people you're helping and that you get to do it and that like, you got to, like, have a good (12:24):
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positive attitude and, like, don't take it for granted.
Like, don't complain.

SPEAKER5: Nice. Yeah. (12:39):
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And the most, probably the most important thing is have fun and work together.

SPEAKER6: Yeah. Especially the "don't complain" part. (12:46):
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I mean, I heard, um, some other groups that were like, oh yeah, they were justthese few kids.
I kept on complaining and

SPEAKER7: I (12:56):
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SPEAKER6: don't think anybody in our group complained. (12:56):
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And it was just way better when nobody complained because they were likejumping around, having fun and stuff.
Yeah, but then when people complained, it was like, you're just raking leavesfor other people.
There's not anything hard about it.

SPEAKER3: So I thought, these are amazing lessons learned. (13:11):
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And that's really good advice.
So thank you guys.

SPEAKER1: Remember that you can find links to (13:19):
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SPEAKER1: and submit topic ideas on our website at OregonSD.org/Podcast. (13:24):
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