From the Classroom to the Community: How One ELA Teacher Built a School-Wide Day of Service

Overview

When OtterBox volunteers came to High Plains Middle School in Loveland, Colorado, and taught a Project Heart lesson, Janelle Joers saw something ignite in her students. Her idea: don’t bring volunteers in to talk about philanthropy – take everyone out into the community to actually do it. What she built over several years became the High Plains MS Day of Service.

How the Curriculum Was Used

Janelle wove Project Heart lessons one through four into her language arts class as brief Friday sessions leading up to the Day of Service. The most powerful lesson: the personal mission statement. Students wrote their own, carried them on the day of service, and reflected afterward on how directly their work had fulfilled what they’d written – a loop from inner values to concrete action that middle schoolers rarely get to complete.

The Day of Service

In 2022, the program reached its fullest form: 13 nonprofits served in a single day, 150+ students and volunteers participating together. Projects included building bunk beds, making valentines for seniors, restocking a food bank, creating free little lending libraries, and sorting seeds for a youth gardening group. Students wore school-designed t-shirts voted on by the student body – an unexpected source of pride for a school still finding its identity.

Why It Matters

93% of students said they wanted to do it again. One wrote simply: “I feel great.” Janelle’s program shows what happens when you move philanthropy from concept to lived experience. She’ll tell you she was fumbling through it at first – but she kept going, and built something real.