The Manhasset Plan
The Manhasset Plan is designed to introduce middle school students to mental illness and community service. This is a plan designed with two specific goals. One goal is to educate students about mental illness and the second goal is to create a plan to help feed the homeless.
The first goal is to introduce Neil Barber to the students. Neil is introduced as a former star athlete at Manhasset High School who developed schizophrenia and has been living in the Pilgrim State Hospital for the past ten years. We talk about mental illness and how it is important to recognize it as you would any serious physical ailment. The idea is to lessen the stigma often associated with mental illness. We talk about Neil’s journey and how at one time he was homeless and how he asked that we support the homeless by contributing food to the shelters around Huntington. I put up a poster of Neil in my classroom to remind students about Neil.
The second goal was to establish a continuing program that would have my classes contributing food on a regular basis to the homeless. There are certain parameters that I created to make sure that students and parents would not look upon this as creating an unfair burden on my students.
1. In a typical middle school, a teacher will have five classes during the day. I created a schedule that had each class responsible for filling two boxes with canned goods per week. I use empty boxes I get from the copy room. I staple the NeilsWheelsNY logo on the boxes. Then, I put the boxes by the door where the students see the boxes and are constantly reminded to bring in their contributions. I ask each student to bring in three cans of food and no more. I don’t want a student bringing in ten cans and incurring the wrath of a mother who looks in a cupboard and finds things gone. In a typical
class of twenty-five I expect to receive seventy-five cans of food. This will fill the two boxes. Each class is required to do this for one week in a five week cycle. I feel that this schedule is fair and reasonable and requires a commitment by my students for one week out of every five. I have never had a complaint from a parent about this schedule. Of course, I will say to the rest of my classes that if they would like to bring something in when it is not their week they are more than welcome to bring it in.
2. I have put a box in all the other middle school social studies classrooms. I ask my colleagues to encourage their students to contribute to NeilsWheelsNY but I try to make sure that I do not annoy my colleagues.
3. I asked the advisors for the seventh grade and eighth grade if we could have a dance where the cost of getting in was three cans of food. They agreed it was an excellent idea. We set a goal of one thousand cans from the 450 middle school students (grades seven and eight) and made sure to announce our goal during the morning announcements. In addition, I had a computer savvy friend create a poster size chart with an arrow starting at one hundred and topping off at one thousand. I put the chart in a high traffic area along the middle school hallway so the students could see their goal. I got about forty boxes and put the NeilsWheelsNY logo on each one. As the students arrived, we filled the boxes with their contributions. As the cans arrived, we displayed on the chart how many cans had been contributed by moving the arrow up. In the middle of the dance we made an announcement of the total cans brought in and thanked the students for taking part in such a worthy cause. Neil’s dad, Greg Barber, was there to thank the kids. We made sure that pictures were taken and the local newspaper, the Manhasset Press, was told about the event. They ran a wonderful story with pictures to share with the community. The chart remained in front of the middle school office to remind the students of the good job they did in bringing in 831 cans,
4. Our goal is to make NeilsWheelsNY a part of the fabric of middle school life. The plan has to be simple and accommodate the busy schedules of both students and teachers. I feel the Manhasset plan does this.
Already, I have some additional ideas that I am thinking of doing. I am sure that you will see other possibilities that will meet the unique environment in your school.
The first goal is to introduce Neil Barber to the students. Neil is introduced as a former star athlete at Manhasset High School who developed schizophrenia and has been living in the Pilgrim State Hospital for the past ten years. We talk about mental illness and how it is important to recognize it as you would any serious physical ailment. The idea is to lessen the stigma often associated with mental illness. We talk about Neil’s journey and how at one time he was homeless and how he asked that we support the homeless by contributing food to the shelters around Huntington. I put up a poster of Neil in my classroom to remind students about Neil.
The second goal was to establish a continuing program that would have my classes contributing food on a regular basis to the homeless. There are certain parameters that I created to make sure that students and parents would not look upon this as creating an unfair burden on my students.
1. In a typical middle school, a teacher will have five classes during the day. I created a schedule that had each class responsible for filling two boxes with canned goods per week. I use empty boxes I get from the copy room. I staple the NeilsWheelsNY logo on the boxes. Then, I put the boxes by the door where the students see the boxes and are constantly reminded to bring in their contributions. I ask each student to bring in three cans of food and no more. I don’t want a student bringing in ten cans and incurring the wrath of a mother who looks in a cupboard and finds things gone. In a typical
class of twenty-five I expect to receive seventy-five cans of food. This will fill the two boxes. Each class is required to do this for one week in a five week cycle. I feel that this schedule is fair and reasonable and requires a commitment by my students for one week out of every five. I have never had a complaint from a parent about this schedule. Of course, I will say to the rest of my classes that if they would like to bring something in when it is not their week they are more than welcome to bring it in.
2. I have put a box in all the other middle school social studies classrooms. I ask my colleagues to encourage their students to contribute to NeilsWheelsNY but I try to make sure that I do not annoy my colleagues.
3. I asked the advisors for the seventh grade and eighth grade if we could have a dance where the cost of getting in was three cans of food. They agreed it was an excellent idea. We set a goal of one thousand cans from the 450 middle school students (grades seven and eight) and made sure to announce our goal during the morning announcements. In addition, I had a computer savvy friend create a poster size chart with an arrow starting at one hundred and topping off at one thousand. I put the chart in a high traffic area along the middle school hallway so the students could see their goal. I got about forty boxes and put the NeilsWheelsNY logo on each one. As the students arrived, we filled the boxes with their contributions. As the cans arrived, we displayed on the chart how many cans had been contributed by moving the arrow up. In the middle of the dance we made an announcement of the total cans brought in and thanked the students for taking part in such a worthy cause. Neil’s dad, Greg Barber, was there to thank the kids. We made sure that pictures were taken and the local newspaper, the Manhasset Press, was told about the event. They ran a wonderful story with pictures to share with the community. The chart remained in front of the middle school office to remind the students of the good job they did in bringing in 831 cans,
4. Our goal is to make NeilsWheelsNY a part of the fabric of middle school life. The plan has to be simple and accommodate the busy schedules of both students and teachers. I feel the Manhasset plan does this.
Already, I have some additional ideas that I am thinking of doing. I am sure that you will see other possibilities that will meet the unique environment in your school.
