See the jar with the daisy? Learn more below about Community School of Davidson's involvement in the "Nickles for Nature" campaign.

What’s with the “Nickels for Nature” jar on the sales counter at the Village Store on Main Street? A group of eighth graders at Community School of Davidson has learned all about the “Nickels” campaign, and is hoping to help expand it into a re-usable bag shopping initiative for Davidson’s Main Street.

We have news about that project, plus a plea for donations to the Ada Jenkins Center from Davidson Elementary’s principal, and a play being staged at Davidson IB Middle.

Also, our school calendar lists upcoming events at area schools.

CHARTER STUDENTS HELP DOWNTOWN GO GREEN

What started as a practicum on local businesses has involved eight students at the Community School of Davidson in an effort to encourage shoppers on Main Street to – as the saying goes – reduce, reuse and recycle.

The eighth graders spend their Fridays in a community service class that focuses on “The View from Main Street.”  Under the guidance of their practicum adviser, language arts teacher Karen Hobday, and service learning coordinator Connie Wessner, the students have been learning about Davidson’s Main Street and seeking opportunities to help out.  They have attended a Downtown Davidson board meeting and interviewed various business owners.

“It took us a while to figure out what we wanted to do,” said Nick Gutierrez.

Megan Blackwell, owner of the Village Store, holds her "Nickles for Nature" jar, while Community School of Davidson hold up logos for the new bag-less shopping campaign. The students include: (from left after Ms. Blackwell) Charlie Cole, Jason Huber, Lila Stallard and Nick Gutierrez.

Then the students learned about the Village Store’s “Nickels for Nature” campaign, a fund to encourage customers to “go bag-less” or bring their own bag when shopping.  The store will drop a nickel into a designated jar on the sales counter whenever a customer participates, and the money collected will be donated to the Davidson Lands Conservancy.

Now downtown merchants are preparing to expand the program by introducing a specially-labeled reusable bag for Davidson shoppers, with plans to use nickels from that initiative to buy recycling containers for Main Street.

The Community School students decided they wanted to get involved in helping promote sustainability in downtown Davidson. “The businesses want people to know that they’re green,” explained Lila Stallard. “And how it helps the businesses is that, in the long run, they won’t have to order so many bags.”

“That keeps costs down,” added Charlie Cole.

Through the lens of this project, the students have learned about the complexity of getting downtown businesses to work together.  For example, a large chain store may have its own reusable bag it is supposed to offer customers, or a smaller business may want to keep the bag it has already developed.

“Bags are advertisements,” Jason Huber pointed out.

The students have learned that the overall goal of encouraging recycling has to be weighed against individual store needs and also must fit into businesses budgets.  The students described their window into Main Street businesses as eye-opening.

“I didn’t realize how they are struggling because of this economy,” said Lila.

At the Downtown Davidson board meeting, “they talked about how important it is to draw visitors,” Jason said. “It gave me a different take on Christmas in Davidson and what that means for the businesses.”

Next month, the students will conclude their practicum by meeting with the Davidson Town Board to talk about the Nickels for Nature and recyclable bag initiatives.

Besides Lila, Jason, Charlie and Nick, the practicum also involves Matt and Evan Harris, Katelynn Beam and Brooke Nash.

Eighth graders at CSD rotate through three practicums over the course of a year, and their work involves background reading and research, book discussions and journal writing.

“I love this kind of stuff,” says Lila of her practicum experience at CSD.

“I like learning about Davidson and how everything works here,” said Jason.

CAMPAIGN FOR ADA JENKINS DONATIONS

Davidson Elementary School Principal Terry Hall and the school’s PTA have joined in on a campaign to collect toiletries and other household needs for the Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson.  Ms. Hall sent out a mass telephone message Wednesday night saying the center “is facing a serious need for basic household items right now.”

The messages ask students bring items to school, or to the Davidson Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop on Main Street Thursday or Friday.  Parents will transport donations from Davidson Elementary to the Ada Jenkins Center after school ends Friday afternoon.

The following items are especially needed: diapers, dishwashing liquid, hygiene products, juice, pasta sauce, canned tomato products, and spaghetti.

The toiletries drive originally began when the Worsley family of South Street and their home-schooled kids were looking for a holiday service project. They thought about appealing to the convoy of parents who drive by their home every day on their way to Davidson Elementary School, and gave their project the name “Toilet-Trees” for Ada Jenkins. If you passed by their home or the family themselves at the school crosswalk Thursday morning, you saw a Christmas tree stuck into a toilet bowl. Read more about the drive in our Wednesday news item, “Toilet-trees drive aims to fill a need (pun intended)”

IB STUDENTS PERFORM ‘SANTA NAPPED’

Drama students at Davidson IB Middle will be performing “Santa Napped,” a holiday thriller, Thursday, Dec. 17, at 6 p.m. on the school stage.  Audience members are asked to bring a non-perishable food item(s) or unwrapped toy, which will be donated to the Ada Jenkins Center.

The play is harrowing tale of Santa getting captured by the CIA for violating the no-fly zone over American airspace.  That leaves it up to Mrs. Claus and a team of mentally unstable elves to spring into action and save Christmas. From Santa auditions and futuristic Christmas cyborgs to terrorists interrogations and mutinous reindeer, the Clauses and their eleven workers, must race against time  to break Santa out of prison and save their beloved holiday.

The cast for the show features Bruce Dixon as Santa; Caitlin Butler as Mrs. Claus; Amanda Caulfield and Bradley Davis as secret agents; Eric Hilse as Rudolph; Luke Churchill as Clausenator 3000; JanTavia Werts as the Easter Bunny; Brandon Joyner, Juan Velez and Deven Lockhart as elves; and Amanda Caulfield and Brianna Biel as girls.

SCHOOL CALENDAR

• WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY, DEC. 16-17 – Bailey Middle bands perform at Davidson and other area elementary schools. (NOTE: THIS EVENT WILL BE RESCHEDULED AFTER THE HOLIDAY BREAK)
• THURSDAY, DEC 17 – Spelling Bee for Davidson Elementary
• FRIDAY, DEC. 18 – Flu vaccine clinic for Bailey Middle
• MONDAY, DEC. 21 - Two weeks of winter break starts for most area schools.
• THURSDAY, JAN. 7 – Davidson IB Middle will host the first of three January open houses for prospective students, starting at 10 a.m.   Families will be able to hear a presentation about the IB program and tour the school.

Send us your news Have school news you want to share? Send calendar items and press releases about local school news to us at: lauriedennis@bellsouth.net