KYLA Graduates Class of 2011-12
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Alek Jansen and Connor Singrey were chosen by the KYLA Board of Directors to present their project at the Class of 2011-12 graduation celebration Wednesday night.
Their project was Boomerang Backpacks. Jansen started with a “sample student,” Tommy. Tommy falls asleep in class and doesn’t do well in class because he’s not getting the proper nutrition at home. Boomerang Backpacks supplies nutritious snacks over the weekend for kids like Tommy.
For the first year, the project is only at Lincoln Elementary School.
Singrey provided the history and breakdown of their project. They met with Warsaw Schools nurse Tracey Akers, wrote a Kosciusko County Community Foundation grant, presented the project to Maple Leaf Farms and sorted through the backpacks.
Jansen said the new WCHS project will be ongoing.
Besides Akers, Singrey said they also worked with people like Lincoln Principal Cathy Snyder and Mark Cockroft, who runs a Boomerang Backpack program at East Noble High School; and others.
They were able to get large donations for the program, including a $9,000 donation from Riley Childrens Foundation. Total received so far, said Jansen, was $16,900.
Singrey said other fundraising is pending from a lot of different local groups to continue the project in the future.
Special needs students at Gateway Educational Center help pack the backpacks, which the Lincoln PTO helps deliver.
Cost to provide the backpacks at Lincoln is about $347.90, or about $2.45 per student. Packed into the bags are items like juice, chips, pasta and other items. Jansen said they hope to do more as the program progresses.
For the child who receives a backpack, Singrey said the child won’t have to go to bed hungry over the weekend. Because the kids pick up their backpack on Fridays and return them on Mondays, he said they expect better attendance on those dates.
To keep the program going after they graduate, Jansen said they will approach two upcoming juniors, possibly KYLA students.
Personally, Singrey said, the project has helped them gain leadership experience. More importantly, it was a way for them to give back to the community and Lincoln school. It provides students with nutrition that they need to succeed and develop.
Tommy, Jansen said, was not just a sample. He was a real boy, whose name was changed to protect his identity.
Singrey and Jansen received a letter from Tommy’s teacher, telling them how excited the boy was that he got food on Friday. It chokes her up thinking about how excited the boy was to get food to eat for the weekend.
They thanked everyone who helped them make the program a reality, including Tracey Akers, Gateway, Connie Greer, Cockroft, WCHS Principal Troy Akers, Warsaw Community Schools, Snyder, Lincoln Elementary faculty and PTO, the many donors and KYLA board members.
KYLA moderator Tony Ciriello said there are people like Tommy who live in this community. They don’t get meals every day. Boomerang Backpack takes care of those kids. While the program has been at Wawasee and Tippecanoe Valley, it’s new to Warsaw.
According to KYLA President Carl Lauster, the academy was started 20 years ago as a White Paper Project for a group in the Kosciusko Leadership Academy. Then 18 years ago, a group of four individuals took the project idea and implemented it with a first class of seven. The following year, KYLA had 25 members.
To date, Lauster said, KYLA has more than 540 graduates.
“The mission statement of KYLA is to develop leadership skills in area youth coming from not only Kosciusko County but Whitley, Marshall and Elkhart counties as well,” he said. “Each year, upward of 35 students are selected among many applicants to participate in this school-sanctioned program that emphasizes service to the local community.”
Besides going to monthly meetings and learning about the underpinnings of the community, each KYLA student is required to work on a service-related project. Each student must donate a minimum of 10 hours of time to the project, but most students end up donating far more than that, Lauster said.
Though KYLA students are not required to raise any funds in their projects, over the past two years, KYLA students have done a remarkable job at coming up with ideas to raise funds for needed non-profit ventures locally.
“Over the past two years, our students have raised over $65,000 and we are currently waiting to hear on a $25,000 grant for our Boomerang Backpack program,” Lauster said.
Also speaking at the banquet was Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer, who spoke on opportunity and seizing it.
Every year, two KYLA members are selected by the board to serve as at-large members the following year. Of the approximate three dozen students, chosen to be at-large members for 2012-13 were Fayth Glock, Lakeland Christian Academy, and Tanner Dickerhoff, WCHS.
Other graduates Wednesday included, from WCHS: Tim Ahlersmeyer, Meredith Hollar, Jansen, Sarah Kerschner, Kristin Quick, Singrey, Emily Stouder, Emily Tandy, Bethany Young; LCA: Naomi Caron, Emilee Catron, Joel Haines, Megan Lang, Ali Slabaugh, Emily Witte; Whitko High School: Chelsee Christoffel, Emily Weigold; Triton Junior-Senior High School: Trenton Cooper, Breanna Lemler, Bryson Mosier, Daniel Riffle III, Jeffrey Ross; Wawasee High School: Emma Donahoe, Brett Heinisch and Jennifer Slabaugh.[[In-content Ad]]
Alek Jansen and Connor Singrey were chosen by the KYLA Board of Directors to present their project at the Class of 2011-12 graduation celebration Wednesday night.
Their project was Boomerang Backpacks. Jansen started with a “sample student,” Tommy. Tommy falls asleep in class and doesn’t do well in class because he’s not getting the proper nutrition at home. Boomerang Backpacks supplies nutritious snacks over the weekend for kids like Tommy.
For the first year, the project is only at Lincoln Elementary School.
Singrey provided the history and breakdown of their project. They met with Warsaw Schools nurse Tracey Akers, wrote a Kosciusko County Community Foundation grant, presented the project to Maple Leaf Farms and sorted through the backpacks.
Jansen said the new WCHS project will be ongoing.
Besides Akers, Singrey said they also worked with people like Lincoln Principal Cathy Snyder and Mark Cockroft, who runs a Boomerang Backpack program at East Noble High School; and others.
They were able to get large donations for the program, including a $9,000 donation from Riley Childrens Foundation. Total received so far, said Jansen, was $16,900.
Singrey said other fundraising is pending from a lot of different local groups to continue the project in the future.
Special needs students at Gateway Educational Center help pack the backpacks, which the Lincoln PTO helps deliver.
Cost to provide the backpacks at Lincoln is about $347.90, or about $2.45 per student. Packed into the bags are items like juice, chips, pasta and other items. Jansen said they hope to do more as the program progresses.
For the child who receives a backpack, Singrey said the child won’t have to go to bed hungry over the weekend. Because the kids pick up their backpack on Fridays and return them on Mondays, he said they expect better attendance on those dates.
To keep the program going after they graduate, Jansen said they will approach two upcoming juniors, possibly KYLA students.
Personally, Singrey said, the project has helped them gain leadership experience. More importantly, it was a way for them to give back to the community and Lincoln school. It provides students with nutrition that they need to succeed and develop.
Tommy, Jansen said, was not just a sample. He was a real boy, whose name was changed to protect his identity.
Singrey and Jansen received a letter from Tommy’s teacher, telling them how excited the boy was that he got food on Friday. It chokes her up thinking about how excited the boy was to get food to eat for the weekend.
They thanked everyone who helped them make the program a reality, including Tracey Akers, Gateway, Connie Greer, Cockroft, WCHS Principal Troy Akers, Warsaw Community Schools, Snyder, Lincoln Elementary faculty and PTO, the many donors and KYLA board members.
KYLA moderator Tony Ciriello said there are people like Tommy who live in this community. They don’t get meals every day. Boomerang Backpack takes care of those kids. While the program has been at Wawasee and Tippecanoe Valley, it’s new to Warsaw.
According to KYLA President Carl Lauster, the academy was started 20 years ago as a White Paper Project for a group in the Kosciusko Leadership Academy. Then 18 years ago, a group of four individuals took the project idea and implemented it with a first class of seven. The following year, KYLA had 25 members.
To date, Lauster said, KYLA has more than 540 graduates.
“The mission statement of KYLA is to develop leadership skills in area youth coming from not only Kosciusko County but Whitley, Marshall and Elkhart counties as well,” he said. “Each year, upward of 35 students are selected among many applicants to participate in this school-sanctioned program that emphasizes service to the local community.”
Besides going to monthly meetings and learning about the underpinnings of the community, each KYLA student is required to work on a service-related project. Each student must donate a minimum of 10 hours of time to the project, but most students end up donating far more than that, Lauster said.
Though KYLA students are not required to raise any funds in their projects, over the past two years, KYLA students have done a remarkable job at coming up with ideas to raise funds for needed non-profit ventures locally.
“Over the past two years, our students have raised over $65,000 and we are currently waiting to hear on a $25,000 grant for our Boomerang Backpack program,” Lauster said.
Also speaking at the banquet was Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer, who spoke on opportunity and seizing it.
Every year, two KYLA members are selected by the board to serve as at-large members the following year. Of the approximate three dozen students, chosen to be at-large members for 2012-13 were Fayth Glock, Lakeland Christian Academy, and Tanner Dickerhoff, WCHS.
Other graduates Wednesday included, from WCHS: Tim Ahlersmeyer, Meredith Hollar, Jansen, Sarah Kerschner, Kristin Quick, Singrey, Emily Stouder, Emily Tandy, Bethany Young; LCA: Naomi Caron, Emilee Catron, Joel Haines, Megan Lang, Ali Slabaugh, Emily Witte; Whitko High School: Chelsee Christoffel, Emily Weigold; Triton Junior-Senior High School: Trenton Cooper, Breanna Lemler, Bryson Mosier, Daniel Riffle III, Jeffrey Ross; Wawasee High School: Emma Donahoe, Brett Heinisch and Jennifer Slabaugh.[[In-content Ad]]
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