Creating a family atmosphere at Sacred Heart in Sedalia

Posted

Seventeen teams of middle school and high school students rushed to transform three pumpkins apiece into works of art.

The ticking clock intensified their creativity.

“Toward the end of the 50 minutes, there was this mad rush on the art room for supplies,” said Sam Jones, dean of students at Sacred Heart School in Sedalia.

Then the students began carrying their finished pumpkins — a candy corn cat, a mummy, Nemo, designs relating to Disney, “Sesame Street” and many others — down to the Commons Area.

“I was amazed at the level of creativity they achieved,” said Mr. Jones. “It was very impressive.”

The pumpkin-decorating project was part of Rachel’s Challenge, a program Sacred Heart adopted last year to promote friendships and compassion throughout the student body.

“We’re trying to form more of a family atmosphere, more care and concern for one another, building relationships,” said Sacred Heart guidance counselor Sherry Buckley.

The goal is for the students to treat each other not only as they would treat family, but as they would treat Christ.

Members of each of the school’s 17 “families” get together one afternoon a month for team-building projects that encourage positive interaction, collaboration and critical thinking.

“If they take the time to develop relationships and build bonds, they’ll have more people outside their grade level who will consider them friends, stand up for them and look out for them,” said Mrs. Buckley.

The idea for creating family units came after Sacred Heart hosted the Rachel’s Challenge Program last year.

The program is named in honor of Rachel Joy Scott, the first of the 15 students who died in a mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in 1999.

At Rachel’s funeral, her parents were taken aback by the stories they heard about her numerous acts of kindness.

“She would always be the one to help the underdog, or sit by the person who was eating alone in the cafeteria, or give someone a ride who was stranded, or stand up for someone who was being picked on,” said Mrs. Buckley.

Rachel’s parents started Rachel’s Challenge to encourage students throughout the country to imitate her and work to end bullying.

One thing that stands out to Mrs. Buckley about the program is the idea of addressing bullying proactively by promoting compassion and kindness.

Mr. Jones said any bullying in any school is too much.

“The thing is, bullying is never a battle that’s over,” he said. “You have to keep addressing it with as many tools as you have available.”

During the Rachel’s Challenge assembly at Sacred Heart, students were asked, “What could improve the atmosphere at Sacred Heart?

Several answered, “We think it would help if we could have an opportunity to build relationships outside of our grade level.”

Sacred Heart is the only Catholic school in the Jefferson City diocese that includes pre-school through high school.

“They pass each other in the halls, but even in a school this size, they don’t really get a chance to build relationships with each other,” Mr. Jones noted.

Mrs. Buckley presented her suggestion for creating family units to Dr. Mark Register, the school’s administrator, and to Mr. Jones.

“We loved it,” Mr. Jones stated.

A great start

They then sold the faculty on the idea at a staff meeting.

“We didn’t know what kind of reaction we’d get, because we’re asking them to give up a period of instruction time each month,” said Mr. Jones.

It would also require some additional planning for each of the teachers, as they would help supervise and facilitate the monthly activities.

“The teachers’ reaction was excellent,” he said.

He and Mrs. Buckley then started working on how to divide the students into families.

They decided not to include siblings in the same school family, so students could get to know more people.

Explaining the concept and announcing the members of each family on the first day of school was supposed to be quick.

But the reading of each name brought an increasingly wild volley of cheers from the seniors.

“They were going nuts for every person, like you’re calling out the starting lineup for a championship basketball game,” said Mr. Jones.

“That’s the attitude that we like to see, and I think it set the tone for the whole thing,” he said.

“Pretty amazing”

The Rachel’s Challenge families at Sacred Heart now take part in thematic monthly activities.

“Our goal is to give them something to do that keeps them busy and working together the whole 50 minutes,” said Mr. Jones.

“If you give them 10 minutes of down time, they’ll be more likely to retreat back into interacting with their same-grade friends.”

For this month’s activity, Mr. Jones got the word out that the school needed about 50 pumpkins.

“We had people come out of the woodwork trying to donate them,” he said. “That’s what’s neat about this community. If I said we needed 200, we would have gotten at least that many.”

The only rule for the pumpkin decorating contest was that all the members of each family was to be encouraged to take part.

“To get three pumpkins decorated in 50 minutes, they really had to work together,” Mr. Jones noted. “I saw a lot of bonding take place.”

Afterward, student Sergio Guerra suggested selling the pumpkins and donating the money to Sedalia’s ecumenical Open Door Benevolent Ministries outreach to people in need.

“Decorating pumpkins was a lot of fun,” Mr. Jones noted, “but it also demonstrated that great ideas can come from some of the most unexpected places. It’s pretty amazing what we can accomplish when we accept and embrace our differences and work together.”

From the top down

It’s often said that Sacred Heart’s seniors set the tone for the entire school. Mr. Jones is happy that this year’s seniors are particularly outgoing, fun-loving and willing to jump in and get involved.

“They all really have good hearts,” he said. “There’s not a mean kid in the group.”

“I’m proud of them, how they interact with the younger students,” said Mrs. Buckley.

Mr. Jones hopes to keep the families mostly intact from year-to-year, adding new sixth-graders after each class of seniors graduates.

He said that if the program is successful in the upper grades, the school might wind up adapting it for the lower grades.

He and Mrs. Buckley believe that Catholic elementary schools throughout the diocese could benefit from a similar program.

“The more time they spend in their family units, the more unity and positive ties it’s going to create,” said Mr. Jones.

Comments