EJHS Student Sees Need, Tries to Meet It

(COLBY HEATON WITH HIS TEACHER ANGELA DENOYER AND THE BOOKMARKS HE CREATED AS A FUNDRAISER FOR NEW ATLASES FOR MRS. DENOYER'S GEOGRAPHY CLASSROOM AT EFFINGHAM JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL)

Colby Heaton is a 7th grader at Effingham Junior High School.  He's one of the students in Angela Denoyer's Geography class.

The class was studying "Canada, Our Neighbor to the North".  Mrs. Denoyer mentioned that a new area identified as Nunavut could not be found in the area just east of the Northwest Territory because the atlases in the classroom were older.  When Mrs. Denoyer mentioned that she wasn't sure when funds would be available to update the atlases, Colby's mind started churning.  

Colby wondered whether the money could be raised to buy updated atlases.  He remembered his work last year in Image Makers, a multi-media class taught by Tim Cotter.  One of their projects had been producing Quotation Marks, bookmarks bearing famous quotes.  Colby thought the production and sale of the bookmarks could generate the revenue needed to buy the atlases.

Colby and friends Miranda Fox, Landon Wolfe, Cooper Jackson, Jessica Herboth, Nick Bishop, Andrew Perry, Tanner Gordon and Madison Schabbing (Colby's younger sister) went to work.  They looked up quotes, printed them out, came up with the various designs for the bookmarks, and laminated them.  They've been selling them for $1 each and went over 140 sold as of Thursday afternoon.

Although he'd been afraid someone would "spill the beans", Colby and his friends managed to keep the purpose of the fundraising a secret from Mrs. Denoyer until last week's Pep Rally, when she was surprised with the information.

Tears came to her eyes when Angela Denoyer talked about the project Thursday, saying no student had ever before done anything like what Colby had undertaken.

Colby's mom, Tisha Schabbing, was quick to credit school staff members for their help on the project.

In case you were wondering Colby's favorite quote, it's from "Forrest Gump": "Life is Like a Box of Chocolates, You Never Know What You're Going to Get".