Hi All! We just wanted to send an update on our progress with Project Give here at Burncoat Middle School. After getting off to a v...e....r....y.... s....l....o....w... start because of all of our snow, the students have finally settled on "Teaching Literacy through Reading". Several of our students became aware of "literacy" programs here in the city that focus on low-income students at the elementary level. Unfortunately due to severe budget limitations, many of these programs due not have the staff to actually teach literacy skills, so the programs have devolved into little more than day care. Our students are targeting 3 such programs in our immediate community and are, even as I write this, visiting the sites and getting permission to purchase some books and spend time each week for the next 8-10 weeks reading to children in these under-performing literacy programs.  The students hope that by modeling literacy skills and an excitement for literature, they can encourage other, younger students toward advancing their own skills. Our students hope to further encourage literacy by purchasing and giving away books to individuals, as well as purchasing small libraries of age appropriate literature for these programs to utilize in the future.
We're planning on getting some pictures of our efforts very soon, and I look forward to seeing the results

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With the new shadehouse, we will be able to grow a lot more veggies that would typically melt in the hot Kihei sun/help a lot more people with healthy foods.

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