Modern Day Super Heroes By Katherine O. Rizzo
In a world in which “school shooting” is found too often in headlines and where cyber bullying is a real threat to our children, it seems we could all use a hero or two. Not the fi ctional type that uses a hammer to fl y through the air, can shrink down to the size of an ant, or travels through space and time by casting spells, but real life super heroes who inspire us to do bet- ter, treat others better and leave our planet a better place.
Enter stage left, Wilde Lake High School’s Monday Marvels: a small group of students participating in the Howard County Public School System’s Work Enclave program who are doing a big service for the community.
The Enclave Program T e Work Enclave program is a supervised
work-training program for students receiving special education. T e program is used as a stepping-stone between school and indepen- dent work for those students who need a higher degree of support or supervision. Each program consists of a small group of students who per- form basic, repetitive tasks under the close supervision of special education personnel. T e goal of the program is to give students a method to allow them to achieve success in the commu- nity and learn skills to work independently. Alice Slater, a foxhunt-
er, dressage and trail rider, has been a schoolteacher since November of 2001, and recently took over the Academic Life Skills program at Wilde Lake High School. T rough the program, she works with students who have cognitive disabilities. Her class this year consists of six students, ages 16 to 21, enrolled in the Work Enclave pro- gram. T e students travel to various locations in Howard County to work within the com- munity, but Ms. Slater, as the students call her, decided to put a little twist into the program based on her equestrian interests. “I contacted the people over at TRRC, where I was an instructor a few years ago, and asked if we could come there to learn about various barn chores,” she explained. At fi rst, the stu- dents did tasks such as sweeping the barn aisle, cleaning tack and dusting. But then, Ms. Slater had another idea, “I was trying to fi gure out a project that each of them could be a part of. Something they could take ownership of and
28 | THE EQUIERY | JUNE 2018
Monday Marvels members Fahd Khan, Logan Petrik, Sebastian Adams and Elisha Arnold with a few of their repurposed feedbags outside Wilde Lake High School in Columbia
work together to accomplish.” Picture a comic book text bubble with a light
bulb, a feedbag and a grocery store above Ms. Slater’s head… and the feedbag project began.
Monday Marvels, Inc. Ms. Slater had already made a
Teacher Alice Slater helps Fahd Khan fold a French seam
few recycled grocery bags from empty feedbags for herself and some friends, and decided it was something that these stu- dents could learn to do. But fi rst, she wanted them to form a company to learn about cor- porate America and building a product from scratch. “I ex- plained what it meant to form a company and they created their own name and we passed out little business cards around the school stating they were available to help with Xeroxing and other classroom tasks,” Ms. Slater said. Student Sebastian Adams
explained, “We came up with a list of ideas and then voted on them. Mon- day, that’s the day we stay at school. And we all like Marvel heroes like Cap- tain America.
I’d want
to be him because he is very strong and has a cool shield!” T us, Monday Marvels was born. T ese kids know their
super heroes, and like su- per heroes, each has a spe- cifi c talent. Sudent Fahd
Logan Petrik fi xes any stitching mistakes by pulling out threads as needed
Kahn explained, “We each have a diff erent role in the company. I am the special assistant to the CEO [Ms. Slater] and keep everyone go- ing.” Fahd went on to explain what part of the project each student does in great detail. “Lo- gan [Petrik] removes the string because he is really detail oriented. T en we turn the bags in- side out and Logan and Elisha [Arnold] clean them, ‘cause sometimes there is still horse food stuck to the bags. Sebastian folds the handles and we both use the machines to stitch them together.”
And if their passion for Marvel movies is evi- dent in their lively discussions, so is their pas- sion for this project. Fahd explained every step needed to complete one bag, and all the stu- dents demonstrated the steps. T ey even made sure to explain the diff erence between string and thread, and what a French seam is, every- thing they learned from Ms. Slater. “So far my team has made 100 bags,” Fahd stated. “T ey are all working really hard.”
Community Impact
T e goal of the project is to make enough bags for all the teachers and staff at Wilde Lake by the end of the school year. “T at’s a little over 200 bags,”
Slater said, adding that at the time of the interview, they had 40 bags in production. “We’ve been making them in sets and then we bundle them to-
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