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PVB Fifth Grade Helps North Carolina School
Seventh grade students at East Yancey Middle School in Burnsville, North Carolina, have a new microscope. Only the second microscope available for use at their school, it allows the students to view microorganisms through the lens and even allows their teacher to point out specimens to the whole class via a camera and projector that can attach to it. Mary Sapp and her students are enjoying this new resource and are thankful to the fifth grade at Bolles Ponte Vedra Beach Campus for providing the means to purchase the microscope.
In December, the Bolles fifth grade students held a cookie sale. The two goals of the sale were to utilize math skills and to raise money for the School. While the original plan was to use the money earned for the Ponte Vedra Beach campus, teachers Carol Quatrano and Robyn Gioia and the students had not yet decided how best to use it.
During this time, Quatrano spoke to Sapp, with whom she had taught fifth grade at the Ponte Vedra Campus for four years and the former St. Augustine campus ten years prior to that. Sapp had moved to Burnsville last summer and the school at which she now teaches is located in a district in which 53% of the families are at or below the poverty level. School supplies, even pencils and paper, are hard to come by.
The Bolles students raised $250 with their bake sale. When Quatrano shared the information about East Yancey, the students decided to donate the money for the much needed microscope. In addition, the students have been collecting school supplies and books and will donate them to Sapp's class as well.
“The kids were excited about being able to help others less fortunate,” Quatrano noted. “We feel this has been a valuable lesson on the spirit of giving and random acts of kindness.”
In a thank you letter to Fred Scott, principal at the Ponte Vedra Beach Campus, Sapp wrote: “Your donation has reaffirmed my belief that Bolles is one of the finest schools to be found. Bolles is dedicated to creating a strong academic environment as well as building sound character. I truly treasure the time I worked at the school and always keep it in my thoughts as the standard needed for my commitment to the education of students in mind and spirit.”