The Lewis F. Mayer Middle School Builders Club is more than just another group at the school.
The student group is a platform for meaningful change and student empowerment, both in the school building and out in the community.
In November, the group celebrated an impressive accomplishment - collecting 903 books for the Cleveland Kids Book Bank in conjunction with the school’s PTA. The book drive was held at Mayer Middle School for just one month, from Oct. 21 through Nov. 15.
“Builders Club is a way to build other people up, create a stronger sense of community, and give back to our community,” Abigail Strozewski, a seventh grader in Builders Club explained.
“We’re creating food drives, book drives, and winter attire drives to help the community out,” Katelynn Wering, a sixth grader added. “It’s basically to help out the community and the school, and make it all a better place and put it all in a better spot.”
“There are a handful of activities that historically Builders Club has worked in partnership with PTA to do,” Jeff Hicks, English teacher, and Builders Club advisor explained. “One of them is the book drive, and another is the hat and mitten drive that we’re currently doing, the canned food drive we’re going to do after the holiday break, and then we help with an Earth Day cleanup over at Bain Park.”
Although the Book Drive isn’t new, some elements of this year’s highly successful campaign were. For example, Builders Club students presented to other middle school students during their daily mentoring periods.
“One thing we talked about in Builders Club was to make sure we communicate more,” Hicks said. “The big difference was we really got the word out on this one, and it worked.”
“What we basically said to the entire classroom was a script that we wrote explaining what the book drive is and what we’re going to be doing with it,” Wering expressed. “We said that if you reach a certain amount of books then you will get a prize.”
The club initially targeted 130 books per grade level, or 390 for the whole middle school - about one book per student - a number this year’s collection far exceeded. The sixth and seventh graders earned the prize this year: ice cream.
“I was honestly really surprised because Mr. Hicks said that the PTA is used to getting 60 books for this drive,” Strozewski stated. “We got over 100 books from just one classroom one week. Each week, up until the very last week, we had a lot of books from the sixth and seventh graders.”
In recognition of their accomplishment, Builders Club students presented at the Fairview Park Board of Education meeting on November 18. At the meeting, students presented the logistics of the book drive to board members, and the incredible success that was the result.
“I felt a big swell of pride because I’m a big reader,” Wering added. “My mom is a big reader, and we really love books. So to see that all of these kids and library are going to get much of this big donation from just one school - it made me really happy, proud, and lots of other positive feelings that I don’t know the names of yet.”
“I’m beyond proud to get the opportunity,” Hicks added. “The whole reason we do what we do is to try and make the world a better place. That’s why I signed up to help with Builders Club. I view it as another tool to help make the world a better place, especially locally. I never dreamed that the very first thing right out of the gate we would have such a big success. And I’m excited.”
With their upcoming Canned Food Drive after winter break, these students are excited to continue to make that positive difference in Fairview Park and beyond.
“I’m really excited to see what happens for the food drive, because that one usually has the biggest turnout,” Strozewski added. “If we can have this great turnout with the book drive, I feel like we’re going to have a really great turnout with the food drive.”