The Project: Lefler Snack Shack 
We are launching the Lefler Snack Shack, a mobile snack cart service dedicated to serving the amazing teachers at Lefler Middle School. To get this program rolling, we need community donations to help purchase our initial inventory, supplies, and cart decorations.

Why It Matters: Building Real-World Skills
This program is entirely operated by students in our Life Skills program. The Snack Shack serves as a hands-on learning lab where students gain vital, real-world experience:
Money Skills: Counting cash, making change, and tracking inventory.
Social Skills: Greeting customers, taking orders, and practicing polite communication.
Vocational Skills: Filling orders accurately and delivering them across the building.

The Cycle of Giving: Community Integration
Every dollar earned from the snack cart goes directly back into our students' education. 100% of the proceeds will fund community-based instruction trips, allowing students to apply their classroom knowledge in the real world.

Future activities include:
Coffee Shop Visits: Ordering items independently and managing personal budgets.
Grocery Store Trips: Navigating aisles, following shopping lists, and purchasing items.
Community Engagement: Practicing safety and social skills in public spaces.

How You Can Help:
Your donation directly funds the start-up supplies needed to launch this venture. By supporting the Lefler Snack Shack, you are investing in our teachers' morning pick-me-ups and, more importantly, empowering our Life Skills students with independence and confidence.

We are back for year 2 of our student leadership group: Norwood Park Navigators.

The student leadership group provides a way for us to increase student voice and provide leadership opportunities for our 3rd-5th grade scholars.  Our school counselor will lead and facilitate this group.

Our Navigators will strive for excellence, expect success, build community, and grow leadership skills. We believe it is important for our young scholars to participate in school, community, and civic engagement, build their leadership skills, increase self-awareness and growth, encourage teamwork, instill pride, help foster an increased sense of belonging amongst self and others, have respect for self and others, be a good role, model, and be a problem solver. All of these skills will help our scholars during their time at Norwood Park and beyond.

Our Navigators will take on leadership roles within our school including, but not limited to: greeting other students at morning arrival, leading new student tours, campus cleanup, helping with morning announcements, assisting with Friday food backpacks, helping deliver our healthy fruit and vegetable snacks, and so much more!

Your donation will directly support our group by providing essential supplies and t-shirts for our Norwood Park Navigators. Thank you for your consideration.

We are raising funds to create and expand a high-quality dramatic play area for our preschool program. We hope to provide our youngest learners with engaging, hands-on materials such as play kitchens, pretend food, dress-up clothing, dolls, puppets, community helpers’ props, and other open-ended toys that invite children to imagine, create, and explore. 

For preschoolers, pretend play is so much more than “just playing.” When children pretend to cook a meal, care for a baby, run a restaurant, become a doctor, or build a home, they are developing important skills that support their growth and future learning. Dramatic play encourages language development, creativity, problem-solving, cooperation, self-regulation, and social-emotional skills. Children learn to communicate their ideas, take on different perspectives, negotiate with friends, and work together to create imaginary worlds.

A thoughtfully designed dramatic play space also gives children the opportunity to connect classroom learning to the real world. They can practice literacy and vocabulary, explore early math concepts, build confidence, and make sense of the people and experiences around them—all while having fun.

We want to give our preschoolers a space where their imaginations can take the lead. With your support, we can provide the materials they need to pretend, create, collaborate, and grow because for little learners, big learning begins with a little imagination.