Published: October 23, 2009 08:36 am      

Community service day a great idea

Seventh-grade students at Cooperstown Middle School were recently taken to a variety of locations such as Glimmerglass State Park, the cemetery in Fly Creek, The Fly Creek Historical Association building and the Clark Sports Center for a hands-on opportunity to work together and help out their community.

The seventh-grade teaching staff has been incorporating a Community Service Day each year for several years. The day out in the ``realworld,’’ provided the students with an opportunity to see how they can make a difference, even at a young age.

``Students often hear of giving back and helping out, but might not know of a specific way they could make this happen, or even believe they could make a difference,’’ said seventh-grade math teacher Deborah Miller. ``Community Service Day not only enables them to help for a day, but also gives them some concrete ways to go out and make a difference as a young person.’’

Every little effort can help and we are glad the seventh-grade teaching staff at CCS is instilling this in our young generation. Getting the students involved in community service at a young age will only make our future generations more willing to provide a helping hand and be better people as they grow up. You may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but teaching good behavior at a young age will hopefully stay with them for years to come.

Miller said many of the sites, such as the Clark Sports Center adventure trails are places the students utilize themselves, which is another good reason to bring the students there to help give back and return some sweat equity and hopefully become more inspired to care for these places in their community.

Seventh-grade teacher John Brotherton said the event also gives students an idea of what it is like to help others without getting some sort of compensation for it.

Lesson well taught, now hopefully it continues to be practiced.