Episode 17: Holiday Greetings from Supercast Santa

(00:25):
Welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. As we send warm holiday, greetings your way. Some very talented students will share the gift of music with sounds of the season. We'll also hear from students who believe that giving back is the best gift of all as our high schools or middle schools celebrate successful charitable holiday giving. Let's start with some holiday music from the West Jordan high school madrigals [inaudible] we're meeting today with student body presidents. The board of education meets with student body presidents from all of our high schools. And so I thought I'd pull each of them aside and ask them a little bit about their charitable fundraiser. Tell me your name, Sydney Leaster. And you were the student body president at Mountain Ridge High School. Do you feel the weight of responsibility starting new traditions?

(02:43):
Of course. Yeah, for sure.

(02:45):
Well, it sounds like you started a great one with your charitable fundraiser. Tell us a little bit more about it.

(02:50):
So at mountain Ridge this year, we're supporting the Tyler Robinson foundation. Um, so they were started by the Robinson family and they give grants to families with children, with cancer to help for like their medical bills, their electric bills get groceries. Um, so we've been doing odd jobs is our biggest fundraiser. Every night we go out, um, we knock on doors in the community and we ask if there's any odd jobs we can do for a donation. Um, we've also been selling crushes so people can settle or can like send a can of crushed to their crush and

(03:19):
Can of crushed to their crush. Is that effective in bringing people closer together?

(03:24):
Yeah, for sure. There's a lot of love going around.

(03:27):
All right. And why is it important to involve students in this type of service do you think?

(03:33):
I think, um, when you involve the students, they're more excited because they can see the impact, especially when it's a local charity and they're more willing to donate and bringing the community to donate

(03:43):
Anything you've observed happened with students that was particularly moving for you this year.

(03:49):
Um, yeah, so at our opening assembly, we had one of the kids from the Tyler Robinson foundation. His name is Tate. He came, um, and it was just really cool to see our students like rally around him and really show him a lot of respect and just get excited to donate.

(04:03):
Fantastic. Hi, tell us your name, Isaac Nazi, VI and Isaac. Tell us a little bit about what you've been doing as student body president at Bingham in terms of overseeing the charitable fundraiser effort. Yeah. So for our charities, we've been doing a lot of newer activities this year. Um, we started doing crush like you, like mountain Ridge has done, and other schools in the district have done. It's actually been really successful. We do Christmas grams during one. Should we sell a lot of apparel? Um, tonight actually we have a male beauty pageant that we're doing that I'm actually participating in. And that should be a lot of fun that should raise a lot of money. Is this your first beauty pageant? This is my first beauty pageant. Yes. Best of luck, Isaac. Thank you. What other activities you guys up to? Um, we had a talent show.

(04:50):
Um, we had a lot of awesome, talented kids show up to that. Um, we have a Zoombathon later this week, our dance go and ballroom team have put together and that that's a lot of fun. And our improv team always does a really successful December improv show called the pay-to-play where the more you pay the longer the show goes. And that's a lot of fun as well. It sounds like you guys have been really creative and trying to involve students. What is the impact that you hope to have on the students at Bingham? Um, as far as like student environment, I just hope that we have this season of giving and then keep the mentality going for the rest of the year. Um, I think it's been successful so far and I think that the students at Bingham have, um, a really, really giving mentality and mindset and always stick with each other.

(05:32):
And if we could just keep that going, that would be awesome. So there's a lot of benefit beyond raising money for charity, which is very important in and of itself. Yeah, most definitely. I would say just the change in the students themselves as easily, as important as the amount of money that we raise. So what charity did you choose to, uh, benefit this year? So we actually have three, we have the Make-A-Wish foundation. We have a wish kid. Her name is Julia she's wishing to go to Disney. Um, and then we're helping the Jordan education foundation and the principal's pantry in order to provide food for students who might not have the same opportunities and, uh, food on the weekends and, um, during lunch and at school. And then we also are helping the Starlight foundation, which helps foster kids did looking for the right charity, help students realize just how much need there is out there.

(06:22):
Do you think? I think so. I think that looking for the charity and informing people about the charities that we serve definitely changes, um, the environment during charity season. And I also think it changes the environment, um, that the students have for the rest of their lives and the awareness that are brought up about these issues. Okay. Thanks, Isaac. Tell me your name, Cooper, Lando. And you're the student body president of the copper Hills high school. Yup. So what are you guys up to in terms of, uh, your fundraiser for this month? Um, so we started our fundraiser about a week ago and it's been going really well. We've mainly been getting donations from our local community and the students. And, um, we were really surprised when two days into it, we restart $10,000 Mark, which is sooner than any previous year before. So we're really excited about that.

(07:12):
The, uh, there are a few things that you're doing differently this year. Tell us about that. Um, so in the past we've done this thing, odd jobs where we go around to different communities and collect donations and we've done it like a few times in the entire time, but this time we're trying to do it every single day and involve our students more to, um, have them have more of a part in getting and raising money, even if it's not through them donating, but through them coming with us to odd jobs. And it's just been really cool so far for us. So that sounds like more of an emphasis on taking the time to give service rather than necessarily how much money you raised. Yeah, exactly. That's what, we're a lot of times more focusing on like a lot of people for odd jobs have, um, like said, can you come back?

(07:58):
And then we schedule like an hour, like two hour long, a period of time with them where we will just like do household chores for them, or like rake leaves. And they really appreciate it. Even if they can't donate a lot of money, it's still just a really good feeling afterwards. Does that connect students and bring them together in a different way when you're working together like that? I really think it does because especially when you're doing it and you know that none of the proceeds are going to you, but they're all going to a really good cause, which is in our community and knowing that it could be going to anyone around you and you just never know, it's just a really cool thing for us. And I think that's how, um, our student body is so United during this time. Tell us about what charities you chose to, uh, benefit this year. So, um, unlike other schools, we don't donate to just a specific charity or multiple charities, but instead we, um, focus all of our time and attention towards people in our communities and the sub for Santa kind of way, where we help them provide for their Christmas

(08:56):
And it's, they can't refer themselves. They have to get referred by someone else. It's really cool because we get to do all the shopping for the kids. We get to deliver them their Christmas. And it's just a really cool thing for us. Sounds fantastic. Thanks for all you're doing. Tell me your name.

(09:13):
My name is Emily Labonte

(09:15):
And you're the student body president at West Jordan high school. Yes, I am. Tell us about the fundraising you've been doing this month.

(09:22):
So our fundraiser for the month of December, it's called mad Jags and that's an acronym and it stands for making a difference. The charity that we chose this year is the haze tuff foundation. They raised money for, um, childhood cancer and some of the unseen costs that come along with that. So we just finished our first week. We had a couple of really successful events. Um, we had a movie night in our commons. We've been doing odd jobs every day. We had a super smash bros tournament that was really fun. And we did a character day for the community, um, that we invited lots of little kids to, to come and meet their favorite characters in color and do things like that. So, yeah, it was a really, really good first week.

(10:00):
Sounds like a lot of creative activity. What is the impact that you hope this will have on students at West Jordan? I,

(10:08):
I just really hope through the whole month that people will be able to step outside themselves and really, um, yeah, just really feel good about the fact that they're making a change in other people's lives. Um, but I also really hope that it will help bring the student body together. I think when you're having a lot of different events that have really wide variety of people can be interested in then, uh, that just really increases school spirit a lot. So I'm hoping for that too.

(10:33):
Sounds great. Lots of good things going on. Thanks very much. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back more music this time from the Keller sisters who were featured on an earlier episode of the super cast, stay with us. [inaudible] Hey, you okay? Uh, yeah. I just have a lot of stuff going on in my head. You need to talk, dude, stop hiding behind the happy face. Talk with no filter, get the safe UT app, download it now available on the Apple app store, Google play or safe ut.org. My name is shy and I'm 17 years old. The Keller sisters. We actually get to skip out of school. So that's your gift to us. We're going to start out with a song by Justin [inaudible]. Alright, so this song's actually a Christmas [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]

(14:57):
Thank you for tuning in and from all of us at the super cast, happy holidays. And remember education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see,

(15:46):
[inaudible] say [inaudible] [inaudible]

(16:36):
[inaudible].