Gilpin School Interact Club presentation
Peak to Peak Rotary Club Meeting
The Peak-to-Peak Rotary Club held its weekly meeting on Thursday, May 20, in the Cedar Grille room at Fortune Valley Hotel and Casino in Central City. Gilpin County School Art Teacher, Curt Halsted, and students of the Interact Club were guest speakers at the meeting along with Superintendent Tina Goar.
Interact students attending the meeting were Jon Adams, Megan Ball, Shelby Foelsch, J.J. Johnson, Tim Johnson, Stephanie Pilcher, Molly Quaranto, Becca Schafer, and Ty Schmalz. Bobby Garza, who was unable to attend the meeting, and Megan Ball are the club’s current co-presidents.
Rotary President, D’Lynn Morse, presented Halsted with gifts of appreciation for all the work he has done in being the teacher sponsor for the Rotary supported Interact Club. Several of the Interact projects for this school year included the Penny War/Coin Drive and Hat Drive for Earth Day to raise funds for recycling activities.
Part of Interact’s Earth Day events on May 22 included selling hat pins. With the purchase of a pin for a dollar, a student could wear a hat to school that day to celebrate Earth Day. Rotarian Ben Slinger agreed to once again match the amount of funds generated by the pin sales. An estimated 242 pins were sold in raising some $242 for the club. Slinger’s munificence got the best of him and instead of merely matching those funds, he donated a generous $500 cash to the club!
Following that, Halsted and Adams summarized a PowerPoint presentation by the Interact Club on Earth Day, “3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” The presentation’s final goal emphasized achieving Zero Waste, where all materials are kept in a production cycle and “waste” doesn’t exist. One of the club’s recycling goals is to replace the Styrofoam trays used in the school’s cafeteria with a more compatible recycling product. Halsted recommended Action Recycling located in Wheatridge for recycling electronics, such as old television sets.
The next speaker was Superintendent Goar on the success of the AVID (Achievement Via Individual Determination) program in the Middle and High School classes. Student Becca Schafer talked about her AVID experience and how it had improved her student skills. One of the adult AVID tutors commented on the tangible results of improved student learning she had seen take place during the course of the school year. Rotarians were encouraged to participate as tutors in the program.
Goar mentioned some of the AVID strategies used in the school, including Middle School students attending a theater movie, “Avatar,” and having a critical learning tutorial of the movie afterward. High School students incorporated their reading of Lewis Carroll’s book, “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland,” with attending a theater movie on the same subject matter for a combined critical discussion of the book and movie during tutorials.
The program will be continued next year and Goar talked about the possibility of officially starting AVID in the Elementary School. High School AVID students recently started conducting trial tutorials with select elementary students. When questioned about what class a student gives up for an AVID tutorial, Goar responded with “study hall.”
Goar thanked the City of Black Hawk for providing the funds for the AVID program.
The meeting concluded after the recitation of the Four Way Test. The next Rotary Club meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 27, from noon to 1:00 p.m. at Fortune Valley Hotel in Central City. An appetizing lunch is available for $10 from the hotel’s Flavours Café Restaurant. Non-members and guests are always welcome at the meeting. Please visit the Rotary website, www.peaktopeakrotary.org, for more information.