1/28/2010 - West Side Leader
     

Akron Montessori students support Haitian relief

COPLEY — Students at Akron Montessori School sent about $2,000 to the American Red Cross to help the people of Haiti this week.

Iris Detweiler, an elementary teacher at the school, said after the Jan. 12 earthquake hit Haiti, she taught her first- through third-grade students about plate tectonics, which is the movement of the earth’s plates that cause earthquakes.

“They did some research on it and, of course, we talked about the devastation from it on such a poor country — the poorest one in our hemisphere,” Detweiler said. “They wanted to help.”

The class decided to collect money at school. Two students at a time stationed themselves at the school’s doors with signs about the project when parents came to the school to drop off and pick up their children, Detweiler said.

“They collected the money, counted it and put it on a chart and added it up as it grew,” she said.

When the collection hit $500, one family matched it with a check to help the total reach $1,000, Detweiler said. But most of the donations came in the form of bills and coins.

“There were two preschool children who emptied out their piggy banks,” she said.

Detweiler added that Akron Montessori School is operated by Jaye and Dayal Kiringoda, natives of Sri Lanka, who opened the school in 1984. It’s located at 3882 Bywood Drive in Montrose and the phone number is (330) 666-4299.

High schools to compete in bridge contest

DOWNTOWN AKRON — Students from several local schools will be among those taking part in the 10th annual Miniature Bridge Building Competition Jan. 29 in the Student Union at The University of Akron (UA).

Summit County Engineer Alan Brubaker will host the event, which is designed to encourage high school students to implement scientific and mathematical principles they have learned in the classroom. Thirty-eight teams from 19 Summit County high schools will participate.

In addition to Brubaker, 10 engineering consulting firms are co-sponsoring the annual event and offering a $2,500 scholarship opportunity for competition participants who choose a career in civil engineering. 

Registration will begin at 7:45 a.m., and the presentation of awards will take place at 2:15 p.m.

High schools taking part in the competition include Akron Early College, Firestone, Norton, Our Lady of the Elms, Six District Engineering Academy, St. Vincent-St. Mary, Walsh Jesuit and Woodridge, as well as the Four Cities Educational Compact.

If UA cancels classes that day due to bad weather, the event will be rescheduled.

For more information, contact the Summit County Engineer’s Office at (330) 643-8170.

Miller South students lend helping hand

WEST AKRON — Students in Kathy Bencze’s fifth-grade class at Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts are raising funds to help people in Haiti.

For two weeks, from Jan. 25 to Feb. 5, the students, with help from parents, will be selling “Helping Hands” for $1 each in the morning and at lunch to help victims of the Haiti earthquake. Bencze said 100 percent of the money collected will go to the American Red Cross Summit County Chapter.

Bencze said she chose the Red Cross because it is a reputable organization and has one of the lowest administrative costs.

“I was born in a refugee camp in Greece after my parents emigrated from Romania, and they really helped me and my family, so I feel very strongly about the organization,” she said.

Purchasers of the paper hands will be able to decorate them, put their names on them and then place them in the auditorium, allowing the students to see how each class is doing in their efforts to raise funds.

“The goal is to have hands covering the entire auditorium,” said Bencze. “We have a contest involving all of the homerooms to see which class can raise the most money.”

Bencze said the winning class will receive an ice cream party.   

— By Maria Lindsay

West-side students eligible for private school EdChoice Scholarship

WEST AKRON — Parents with children in 11 Akron schools, including Rankin, Schumacher and Stewart elementary schools, can now apply to send their children to a local private school with a state-funded scholarship.

The Educational Choice Scholarship (EdChoice), currently in its fourth year, gives students in Ohio’s lowest-rated public schools the option to attend private schools. Entering kindergarteners assigned to start at the schools in the fall are also eligible for the scholarship.

The scholarship is worth $4,250 a year for kindergarten through eighth-grade students and $5,000 a year for high-school students. Once students begin using the scholarship, they can continue to use it through high school graduation, according to EdChoice officials.

About 3,500 children in the Akron Public Schools are eligible for EdChoice. To receive the scholarship, eligible students must be accepted into a participating private school by April 16. There are currently 17 private schools in Akron that accept the scholarship.

Parents interested in the scholarship can contact School Choice Ohio at (800) 673-5876 or by visiting www.scohio.org.

Interested parents also can learn more at two upcoming EdChoice informational meetings planned and hosted by West-side parents: Jan. 30 at 11:30 a.m. at Maple Valley Library, 1187 Copley Road in West Akron, and Feb. 27 at 1 p.m. at the Akron-Summit County Main Library, 60 S. High St. in Downtown Akron.

    — By Stephanie Kist

Contest seeks America’s next great inventor

DOWNTOWN AKRON — Students in grades five through eight can stretch their ingenuity to the limits by creating inventions that incorporate the use of rubber bands for the Rubber Band Contest for Young Inventors.

Presented by The University of Akron’s Akron Global Polymer Academy and the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society, the contest features two competition divisions: Arts/Leisure and Science/Engineering. Four finalists will be brought to Akron, where the first-place winner and runner-up in each division will be announced at a May 1 awards ceremony.

The first-place winner in each division will receive a $5,000 savings bond. The runner-up in each division will receive a $2,500 savings bond. The top eight semifinalists in each division who are not selected as finalists will each receive $50 gift cards. The teacher/mentor of each first-place winner will receive a $400 gift card, and the teacher/mentor of each runner-up will receive a $200 gift card.

To enter, youngsters should submit a completed official entry form, a sketch of the invention and an essay of 1,000 words or less explaining the invention’s purpose, how it works, how the idea was created, and how it will be used or make everyday life easier or more enjoyable. The deadline for entries is Feb. 10. Complete contest entry rules and details are available at www.rubberbandcontest.org.

    — By Stephanie Kist

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