Service includes praise heaping, sole searching

When the Floyd R. Shafer K-Kids club sought to thank the staff at the Nazareth, Pennsylvania, elementary school, they wanted to send the very best, to paraphrase a popular slogan. But rather than run out to the nearest greeting card store, club members opted to haul out the art supplies and craft their own well-wishes, complete with a sweet surprise.

“Our school is involved in the SWEBS—School Wide Effective Behavior Support System,” explains faculty advisor Katherine L. Heller. “(The K-Kids) role is making tokens of appreciation to give the school staff to thank them for the support they give to make this program a success. Their ‘token’ was a Milky Way candy bar attached to a handmade card illustrating, ‘You are out of this world.’”

Almost all of the club’s 35 members participated in the project, sending kudos to more than 90 teachers and staff members who, along with fellow students, support the club in its many activities and fundraisers, which include: collecting more than 50 pairs of shoes to donate to the Shoes for Orphan’s Soul project; sponsoring a Mini-Relay for Life walkathon in which students collected pledges and completed laps in the school’s hallways; and collecting pop tabs to underwrite the costs for guests staying at the Ronald McDonald House at the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital.