Giving Costs Nothing and Offers a Chance to Change Everything Parts I, II, III and a HOP

If ever there was a blog hop to bounce around and see beautiful in, it's this one with the celebration of children and giving and the children orchestrating the giving!!

When the Fifth grade students in Mrs. Alecia's class at Cheatham Hill Elementary School set out to collect 1,000 books for our St. Anne's Center Homeless Shelter Book Drive in February, I admittedly had no idea how much they would leave so many others seeing beautiful. Their following reflections about what this book drive, and subsequent learning about seeing beautiful, reveals their own understanding about giving that costs absolutely nothing. As you will read, their giving provided an opportunity to empower another. Over the week we will showcase the students' reflections of their experiences with this service learning project; one that resulted in the collection of OVER 2,300 children's books for others who have none. 

To the Cheatham Hill Elementary School Community, you all instantly endeared yourselves to See Beautiful as part of our family committed to creating more beautiful in the world. Thank you. 

Students reflections - PART 1 & II:

I saw more beautiful...in the motivation and enthusiasm of my students.

...in their kindness and cooperation as they collaborated with each other.

...in their excitement as the stacks of books kept growing!

...in their comments and reflections posted on our Edmodo page.

...in the parents who hauled in carts of books with their children.

...in the deeper relationship forged with See Beautiful!

I helped to create more beautiful...by providing a meaningful learning opportunity for my students where they felt empowered, encouraged, and engaged.

...by collaborating with See Beautiful to provide a small distraction from furlough days...pay cuts...common core...data walls...upcoming testing...by having a weekly raffle of See Beautiful products!

...by sharing the See Beautiful website with over 1100 families...which will hopefully lead to more beautiful!  Dr. Alicea

It helped me by helping homeless people have something to do in the homeless shelter and a little thing can help someone do something big.
The homeless people will be so thankful. Brandon E.

The book drive helped me to create more beautiful by doing a project that will change people's lives and hopefully make them a lot happier. I was on the flyer committee and it went very well, I acted very responsible, and I felt like I was doing a lot of help for a homeless child simply by just handing out pieces of paper. I think the children will be so happy because they have probably never had a book in their whole life. That makes me feel so good inside that I am doing something good for someone. Anna S.

 

The See Beautiful/St. Anne's project helped me see more beautiful by giving me another definition of beautiful.  After Dr. Mays visited us, I had a new definition. Instead of a super model being beautiful because of her looks, you can look at someone ordinary with a kind heart and think wow, that person is truly beautiful.  I was on the poster committee and it went great! I feel that my partner and I were responsible. If I was one of the children at St. Anne's I would be excited that I would get new books. I feel awesome and that I helped to create more beautiful because the children will get new books that we helped collect. Eliza V.

See beautiful. This project helped me see more beautiful in the world like this,
The people that are in need aren't so far away now, they seem closer.
Also they need help. I see beautiful in my classmates, who worked sooooo hard for this book drive to be successful! I see beautiful in my teacher, who is also working hard for students and the book drive. I see more beautiful in my parents and grandparents
And I see more beautiful in my friends. All of this is just to say, I can now see more beautiful in the world, and in people. Olivia H.

I now see more beautiful in the world, because this project showed me that this world is gorgeous. There are so many people that want to help the world and the people in it. Just seeing the website made me feel like people care. Like us!
This project helped me create more beautiful in the world by showing me the people who need help. Now, I can help them too. I just needed to SEE them to know that they need the help that I can give.
In this project, I handed out flyers to the teachers and classes. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it helped the kids learn more. By them helping with books, I am helping the homeless. The committee I was on worked very well. We handed out over 1100 flyers That we needed to hand out. I felt very responsible.
I think the children receiving these books will feel like people do care what happens to them. Knowing that, it makes me happy that they feel needed or important. Paige S.     

     

The book drive helped me see more beautiful because we realized that we all have beautiful in ourselves. See Beautiful was a great experience!  It wasn't just helping others...it also helped us. Our role in this project was we made all the fliers and delivered them. This was a long process, but we did complete it! I feel we were very responsible and got the job done on time. We felt really good about this. I bet the kids are going to be so excited and surprised. that would make us happy.
We learned that we all matter and can make a difference in the world. We will NEVER forget this adventurer.    Jac W.

 

This project helped me see more beautiful in our world. I was outside the cafeteria collecting books. It made me so happy to see the smiles on everyone’s faces that turned in books. I saw beautiful when Dr. Alicea was so happy on the day we collected more than 2000 books. It makes me happy to see so many people actually trying to help St. Anne's center for this library. Everything went perfectly. It is absolutely outstanding how well we have done in the last month. I am very proud of all of this class and everyone who donated books. I thank all those kids for helping our school see beautiful. I'm proud to be a member of a classroom and school who sees beautiful! Connor S.

I was on the flyer committee and I enjoyed that. When we passed out the flyers, I felt like I was creating beautiful by helping thousands of people. I think the homeless children receiving all of the books we collected will feel overwhelmed.....with joy. Having a chance to read is a big deal when you haven't ever gotten to. I hope St. Anne’s will be able to create the library soon so all those kids can have books to read. Chloe C.

Participating in the See Beautiful project helped me create more beautiful in the world by collecting books for the homeless in St. Anne's shelter. We donated books for kids of all ages. I helped by editing the scripts that went on the announcements that told people to turn in books. I think the kids will appreciate all these books and feel very grateful. Helping all those kids made me feel very good, I might actually make some money to donate to shelters that are in need. Louis C,   Announcements committee

It was an honor being part of the See Beautiful™ project. I learned to see beautiful every day, and not just in me, but the people I encounter every day. From bullies to teachers, everyone has some beautiful waiting to shine on the world. I played a small part in this project...I helped write scripts and the parent letter. We couldn't have done it without each other. This opportunity has really made an impact on my life. Thank you for letting us be a part of this project. KC A.

"The See Beautiful/St. Anne's project made me realize that it isn't always about how you look on the outside. Now I know that it is about what you do from the inside. For example, if I see someone on the side of the road, I know now to not just run in the opposite direction, but to actually go over to the person and help him. I felt really good inside doing this project! If I were one of the children, getting the books, I would be super excited. It makes me very cheerful that the children are getting a bunch of books!" Lindsey B.

"I wasn't sure we could do this project and get all the books. But now because I saw that we got 2,000+ books…I see more beautiful in the world because of the generosity and caring of the kids and their parents who donated books to this project. Some examples are when I see people that are homeless I feel like I need to help them. Also when I see people at the grocery store I don't just assume that they can buy a lot of stuff. This project has helped me see more beautiful in this big world of ours." Jackson R.

"I love reading books, and once I found out that there were kids in the U.S.A without them, it touched me. I still find it hard to believe. I am glad that I could help by contributing to the flyer we sent out. I think this helped everyone see more beautiful, but to me seeing the different people in the school helping, and that other schools were helping was amazing. This is something that I am sure that the kids at St. Anne’s will be excited. I know it was a great experience for me and am happy that I was able to create beautiful for them!"  Libby M.

"Doing this service learning project helped me to see more beautiful because before we started this project I didn't really see very much beautiful because I was only looking on what was on the outside and not looking deep enough to see beautiful on the inside. I was not expecting all the books that the Cheatham Hill families donated. It showed they were caring about the kids at St. Anne’s." AJ R.

"I feel like over this month I have learned to see a little more beautiful. I passed out flyers for the book drive, I even made a flyer! I also helped collect books, donated a few books and went on morning announcements two times to share information with the school. But this isn’t about me. I think I saw beautiful when I took into consideration the fact that not everyone has what I have. When people think about being homeless they assume it was your fault. You may have been smoking or been careless or not gotten a degree, but some people can’t help it. I think over the month I have learned that no problem is too small and that we should see beautiful in everything. Everyone deserves a second chance at seeing beautiful. I am glad I got a chance to See Beautiful this month!" Jordan S.