Through a collaboration with University Hospitals and the Geauga County Department on Aging, Chardon High School’s Chardon Service Learning students hosted 100 local senior citizens for the school’s eighth annual Heart 2 Heart Senior Dance on Feb. 21.
Annual Heart 2 Heart Senior Dance
Through a collaboration with University Hospitals and the Geauga County Department on Aging, Chardon High School’s Chardon Service Learning students hosted 100 local senior citizens for the school’s eighth annual Heart 2 Heart Senior Dance on Feb. 21. The dance was held at Park Elementary School’s auditorium.
The CLS students, together with their service class advisers Rob Mizen and Scott Brown, are grateful to UH for donating the event’s linens and delicious lunch, with special gratitude to Dawn Damante, UH Geauga Medical Center’s business development coordinator of senior services; Timothy Willis and Joseph Matteucci, nutrition services chefs; and Sandy McCleod, department on aging’s senior center supervisor. The finishing touch was courtesy of Party Loft business owner Tami Eggleston via the provision of red, pink and white balloons decorating the auditorium.
To commence, Chardon VFW Post 6519 members conducted a color guard ceremony coordinated by Alan McBride, followed by a soulful rendition of the national anthem by CHS junior Ethan Peterson.
CHS Class of 2016 alumnus Dominic Ferrante served as the event’s disc jockey. Ferrante, who is currently in his senior year of college at Bowling Green State University and working at a PBS station, is one of the pioneers of CHS’ Annual Heart 2 Heart Senior Dance. With Ferrante at the microphone and spinning tunes, CSL students and senior citizens mingled – dancing together, playing cards and engaging in conversation.
Many of the students noted how they enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect at the dance with senior citizens they had gotten to know earlier in the month at a book club event hosted by the high school and department on aging.
While lunch was served at the dance, Park second-grade students arrived and sang, much to the delight of the crowd. Afterwards, the young students made individual rounds to the tables to present handmade Valentine cards and read poems to the senior guests of the day.
“The party was a celebration of life and a means of connecting generations,” said CHS Principal Doug Murray. “The event hallmarks our core values in action. Simple words cannot express what this day means to our students within the leadership curriculum taught by Mr. Robert Mizen and Mr. Scott Brown. Moments like this epitomize what servant leadership is all about. We are grateful for everyone who spent months planning for this experience and look forward to building upon our relationship with University Hospitals and the Geauga County Department on Aging. Special thanks to our teachers, students, and Senior Center Supervisor Sandy McCloud for putting together this annual event.”
With gratitude to Geauga-TV, nearly 70 photos of the dance are available for public viewing and free downloading at g-tv.smugmug.com/School.
Welcome to Earth Parties
Fifth-grade science classes at Chardon Middle School held Welcome to Earth parties last month wherein students presented their recently completed alien projects to their peers and enjoyed themed snacks.
In the weeks beforehand, as a tie-in to the class’s recent curricular units on space and life science, the fifth-graders were assigned a research project wherein each student was asked to choose a planet of the solar system and research the planet. With this acquired knowledge in mind and using art materials of their choice, each student creatively designed an alien featuring three adaptations to enable the alien to survive life on their home planet.
Students then each decided how they would present their alien creation and its information to the class. Format options included a letter to the president, a newspaper article or a slideshow presentation. The presentations took place during the Welcome to Earth parties.
Following the presentations, students mingled and enjoyed space-themed treats, including Moon Pies, Starburst chews and Milky Way candies.
BOE Meeting Overview
Chardon Schools understands that attendance at a school board meeting can sometimes not fit with personal schedules or may conflict with other activities taking place the same evening. Therefore, as of January 2020, the district will be providing video recaps to the public for all future regular board meetings.
The second of these videos is now available online via BoardDocs for the Feb. 18 regular board meeting and can be accessed under that meeting date. To locate BoardDocs, visit the Board of Education link at www.chardonschools.org. Community members can also continue to access complete agendas of the board meetings via the BoardDocs page.
