McKinley-ALC students gather in the early morning at the St. Cloud Veterans Hospital sporting their volunteer shirts and name tags. They venture to the Veterans Affairs Hospital (VA) twice a month to reconnect with veterans, some whom they now call friends.
Kathy Lyerly and Mike Myers-Schleif, McKinley service learning project supervisors, await the students. They laugh and joke with each other. It’s a light, fun atmosphere. Lyerly began the partnership between St. Cloud Area School District and the VA 25 years ago. She and Myers-Schleif have been overseeing it together for 22 years.
Today, principal Alicia Fischer is visiting. It’s her first time to participate with the students as their new principal at McKinley.
“This is a long-standing relationship that we really take pride in,” says Fischer. “One of the pieces I enjoy is that it really sheds light on what an ALC [Alternative Learning Center] is and [provides] authentic, alternative ways for kids to learn skills that we know will translate into a career and the workplace. … It’s exciting to see students in a different light and outside the academic walls, take the skills they’ve learned and really translate them into helping our veterans and our community.”
The partnership to create a service learning project started on a whim, according to Lyerly. A call to the VA was a shot in the dark, but the VA agreed.
“The VA just welcomed us,” she explains. “Every year it changes a little bit. We just roll with it.”
What gives testimony to the success of the learning project is when Lyerly or Myers-Schleif have past students ask if the program is still going. For many, it is their most memorable moment in high school.
“I can be at Sam’s Club,” says Lyerly, “and someone will come up to me and ask, ‘Are you still doing the VA? Can I come out?’ And these are 30-year-olds! The guy that trims my trees-almost 40-still asks … It is life changing for these kids, the stories they walk away with, the memories they have, and they wouldn’t have it any other way. I couldn’t have touched that in the classroom. They have volunteerism embedded in their souls.”
Each time the students volunteer it includes bingo and bowling, but also a themed event such as frosting Thanksgiving cookies to serve the veterans, decorating for the upcoming holiday or making Memorial Day pins.
“The veterans are so appreciative,” says Lyerly.
The service learning project is academic in nature as well. Each student is paired with a veteran and tasked with asking questions of the veteran in order to learn more about them, their history, their era and their military service. The students then write a narrative about their experiences and what they’ve learned.
“It’s the most beautiful thing to watch [students interviewing veterans],” describes Lyerly. “Mike and I were watching this student who interviewed a vet for two hours, while others had interviewed for about an hour. We just wanted to take a picture of this kid. They [students] get so affected by the stories they hear from years ago.”
Nick Graveen, a senior at McKinley, has been doing the project for three years.
“We get to know them [veterans] by asking questions about their childhood, their schooling, their military career,” explains Graveen. “Most of the time, they have no problem with that. Sometimes they are a little touchy. Most are more than happy to share. … It’s just fun to sit here and chat with them.”
Graveen is already enlisted in the U.S. Army and he sees volunteering as a way to give back, not only to the vets at the hospital but also to his relatives who have served.
“I have a real personal connection with this,” says Graveen. “For me, it’s about giving back to those who have given so much.”
For others like Tyler Plogger, it is something new to try. He also volunteered at Catholic Charities this past year. Plogger takes the initiative to keep things organized and moving along. He sets up bingo because he loves to call the game.
Randy is a veteran who attends the VA’s day programs. He has enjoyed having the students volunteer at the VA for the past several years.
“It’s interesting to me,” he says, “because I find them really accepting and they have no expectations. It’s just a lot of fun.”
As the day winds down, McKinley students and veterans reflect on another day of memories and connections and look forward to their next meeting. The students feel both proud and honored, knowing that they’ve touched the heart of a veteran who, in turn, has done the same for them.
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