Student-run business teaches life lessons
by DENISE MAHER
A dozen or more bowls of shiny and sparkling beads, dewdrop and round, spotted and metallic, small and large, were dispersed along the skinny table below the eye level of 14 special education high school students.
But this wasn't arts and crafts time, and it certainly wasn't break time. These teenagers were fashioning the product line for their new business, CR Strings.
"I thought I couldn't make it," said Ashley Kay, 18, holding up her completed, gorgeous, glistening blue-beaded bookmark at the Village Earth Bead Market on Germantown Avenue.
"You didn't think you could do it, but you did," said Sheila Ash, one of her teachers.
She is just one of the kids from the Council Rock South school district's program that took a "field trip" to the Village Earth Bead Market last Thursday to start crafting bookmarks for charitable causes.
The kids, who range in age from 14 to 19, and their teachers decided to start CR Strings because they wanted to do something positive for the community. "However, the problem of finances became eminent," Heather D'Angelo, the class's teacher, said.
D'Angelo, a Fort Washington resident, started discussing project ideas that would raise the money they needed with Ash, who saw similar beaded string bookmarks at a book store. "Students could make the bookmarks with a certain degree of ease while using their creativity," D'Angelo said.
The bookmarks will be sold at their school in Bucks County, at the Village Earth store and at the Glenside Farmer's Market on Saturdays during the month of October.
The students have decided to donate all of their profits to charity, some of which will go to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), since many of the students have been patients.
"Kids who are there can get a gift and it can make them happier," said Kevin Christ, 15, who was born at CHOP.
D'Angelo, one of the teachers in charge of the CR Strings program ("CR" is short for Council Rock but can also be pronounced see-our-strings), said that learning skills while doing an interactive project like making bookmarks is much more effective than classroom lectures and helps the students feel self-sufficient.
"They learn by socialization and doing and [they] retain structure through knowledge. They are growing from that through actions, through instructions, through discovery and through desire to learn. Everything comes from those desires," D'Angelo said.
Around the table of bowls and cups of various beads, the children worked hard to make at least three bookmarks each. Most students decided that tying knots in the leather string that serves as the vertebrae of the bookmark was the hardest part.
Kimberly Ashton, 17, disagreed. "No, it's not hard. I do it different than anyone else. My way is faster," she said.
The talkative George Tsaketas, 15, was more interested in making complex, multiple-page bookmarks. The pile of inventory grew quickly.
Village Earth Bead Market provided the space, supplies and inventory for CR Strings.
"It's about people coming together, creating community to make a difference, and I'm excited," said Village Earth co-owner Todd Glickstein. "We want to keep their marketing going."
Downstairs from the main bead showroom in Village Earth lies a quiet, coolly-colored, carpeted room and a meeting table that serves as a space for children's parties. This is where the Council Rock students worked throughout the morning, creating their handiwork.
"This one is for my mom," said Christ. "I told her it was free."
Teacher Ash reminded the students of their community service mission. "Now how are we going to make any money if you told her it's free? Let her pick one out on her own when she sees them," Ash said.
Several students soon after said they would also like to make a bookmark for their mothers.
Co-owners Glickstein and Deborah Potter were so impressed with the business-like attitude and glowing personalities of the Council Rock South students that they have decided to invite them back on a monthly basis. There will be at least one session where jewelry and bookmarks will be made for the children's mothers.
D'Angelo told the good news to her students at the end of the morning field trip.
"See ... when you open your heart, when you do for others," D'Angelo said, "people will be gracious to you."
A growing idea
"Save your page -- save your community!" is the CR Strings slogan, designed by student Ashton.
When asked how she came up with the catch phrase, she said simply, "I just thought of it."
That's how most of the program came together, actually. The idea was inspired by study classes about offbeat philanthropist Patch Adams and stemmed from two parent programs, Giraffe and Student Voices, which helped the class to envision a charitable, student-run business.
The students, said D'Angelo, "welcomed the project with open arms," and believed it would be a practical, relatively cheap and fun product to sell. D'Angelo and Ash saw the project as a way to foster workforce and communication skills.
The Council Rock South students have helped to make every decision -- from where to sell the product, to how many to make, to what the finished product would look like, to the name and slogan of the business.
One student asked if longer bookmarks could be made for people who want to put them in textbooks, and another made a multiple-page bookmark with two and three beaded strings.
"When you give kids the opportunity to do this work, you'd be amazed at the types of responses you get," D'Angelo said.
The Village Earth Bead Market is located at 8842 Germantown Ave. in Chestnut Hill. The Glenside Farmer's Market, at the Glenside Train Station on the corner of Glenside and Easton Roads, will be selling the beads on Oct. 9, 16 and 30 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. They will retail for $5. Information about the program and other ways to purchase a CR String can be directed to Heather D'Angelo at hdangelo@crsd.org.
