Rummel Creek Elementary is fortunate to have an awesome group of students that form the Student Council. Each year, students in fourth and fifth grade are elected to serve on Student Council. This year - the students have been amazing. They have come up with all kinds of service ideas to make Rummel Creek an outstanding school. Along with assisting during the move, Student Council members were the ambassadors at the Open House when our new building opened.
Once we were in the new school, Student Council came up with the idea to make Backpack Blessings for students in other schools. During the brainstorm session, they came up with the foods to be put in the bags, an idea to add books, as well as an execution plan. Then they came up with their number to make - (I was expecting 50 and was only halfway listening at that point)... Then I heard the number - 500! I may have gasped! Immediately they began making a plan and we decided to collect items for 500 BackPack Blessings.
Remember - the students made the plan - so...the food included in the BackPack Blessings were the following items: granola bars, cheese its, filled crackers, applesauce, slim jims, goldfish, and water. The last item added was a book! Yes...a book for every child who would receive the 500 BackPack Blessings.
At first, the students wanted to have them completed by Spring Break. Quickly they realized that three weeks was not enough time to plan, collect and bag. (Thank goodness - I was still exhausted from the move.) We stepped back and made plans to collect and deliver at the end of school.
The Student Council made posters, talked to classrooms, sent home notes, made advertisements for KRCE and generally talked up the plan. We asked our Heroes and GAP groups, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to join in the effort. After weeks of planning and working hard, the group collected all of the necessary donations - even more than we needed.
Yesterday, from 3:15 - 4:00 a group of students including the Student Council, Fourth Grade GAP, and Fourth Grade Heroes (Bible Study groups at RCE), stayed after school to pack up the BackPack Blessings.
Not only did they finish the 500 bags with all of the items, they counted and sorted the books by age and gender. We had a few extra items so they counted them and bagged them for the after school programs at the schools the BackPack Blessings are going to be distributed.
This morning, Urban Outreach came and loaded up their truck with the materials with the help of Student Council Members. The Backpack Blessings will go to three SBISD schools - Shadow Oaks Elementary, Treasure Forest Elementary, and Ridgecrest. A few more of the bags will go out to a Cy Fair school off of 290.
Thank you Rummel Creek Family for making a difference. Thank you Student Council for taking the risk and meeting your goals.
