Boulder Creek students do community service

Boulder Creek Academy integrates community service projects into the school's curriculum, which benefits for the school and the community.

Boulder Creek would like more service opportunities within the Bonners Ferry area. If anyone has a specific need or idea call registrar Laura Taylor at 267-7522.

Some of the academy’s most recent volunteer efforts included:

• An Eagle Scout Leadership Project with a senior student, who attained the rank of Eagle Scout through the national Boy Scouts Lone Scout program. The student constructed honeybee hives for Boulder Creek’s farm program. In the spring, he built and painted two hives, populated them with mail-order honeybee colonies and tended them throughout the summer.

• Habitat For Humanity. Each week, a group of students help on the construction of a home in Bonners Ferry. They worked on an deck that included a railing and steps.

“Not only do students learn by utilizing ‘real math’ applications, they enjoy the satisfaction that comes from helping a local family build their own house,” said leader and math teacher Paul Greenhalgh.

• Community Kitchen. On Thursdays, a group of students prepares and serves a free lunch to residents at the United Methodist Church. Students share a meal with guests, getting to know one another.      

“This meal is a combination of efforts between the school kitchen staff who do much of the food prep, and the students who transport, finish prep, and serve the lunch to the diners,” said Phyllis Foust, coordinator of the weekly lunch.

The lunch is open to anyone in the community.

• Local Sports. Six Boulder Creek students refereed soccer games for the local youth league in the fall.

Some of the league coaches came and thanked me for the good job that our students did,” said academy dean of education, Brent Dehlborn. “They said that they especially enjoyed watching our student referees improve their skills as the season progressed.”

Another student is preparing to coach a Valley View Elementary School basketball team for the winter season's PTO league.

• During the summer and fall, farm and phase manager Charles Solomon directed a group of students in cutting, splitting and delivering three cords of firewood of two local widows.

• Weekly students assist Panhandle Animal Shelter in Ponderay by walking dogs.

• Teacher Claude Bisson and students recently put up all the Christmas lights in downtown Bonners Ferry. Students will be shoveling snow on an as-needed basis for the elderly and disabled.

• Boulder Creek Academy teachers, clinicians and program staff all attest to the value that community service projects add to each student's school experience. Through volunteering, students learn new skills or put into practice abilities and interests they possess.

They learn to turn their focus outside of themselves and gain self-esteem from helping others. Moreover, some of the volunteer work that they participate in can be partnered with their academic lessons, creating a true “win-win” situation for all involved.