​​This year brings new challenges and new partnerships for the Career Skills class, which always manages to achieve amazing results no matter the situation.

The class interns spent the summer collecting and sorting clothing to prepare for the annual Free Shopping Event. In addition to lost and found and staff/family donations, Career Skills received an extremely generous donation of new clothing items from United Way. Some of the new clothing items will also be available in the Guidance Department for students preparing for job and college interviews. It was a very successful event!

In September, they held their annual “Free Shopping Event” for members in the community. Seventy-five families came to the First Baptist Church to shop for gently used clothing items, backpacks, and school supplies. In addition, their interns are busy stocking shelves and packing 120 “Filling in the Blanks” bags for students in our district each week. An additional 60 “Bear Essentials” bags (food, toiletries, and cleaning supplies) are packed for families in need within our Brewster family.

Continuing their partnership with ARC with weekly pre-vocational classes, the classes here were fortunate to have a guest speaker from Tops present regarding the skills needed to work in a grocery store. Each student prepared a question to ask about working in Tops. In addition, the classes have been talking about appropriate behavior for the workplace and the importance of clear communication.

The Career Skills class has also begun their partnership with the Southeast Museum. The group catered desserts for the Brewster Fall Festival, are sewing Betsy Ross Pillows, and making ornaments to help celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. One student, Benjamin, is interning at the museum on Fridays. He carefully unwraps artifacts, takes pictures, names the files, and uploads the photos to the digital repository.

The class has also maintained a partnership with the Brewster Rotary who have steadfastly supported the Career Skills Program. The Brewster Rotary secures a grant and donates approximately $3,000 to purchase groceries for Bear Essentials. As you can imagine, this donation has a major impact on both the intern skills program and the work the students do for their community. In addition to this very generous donation, the Brewster Rotary contributes to their annual coat drive by buying coats for students in our district who are in need. The Brewster Rotary also teams up with the Patterson Rotary to supply a “Thanksgiving Sides” box for 50 families that the students pair with turkeys to help brighten the holiday for families facing food insecurities.

And among all of these activities, they still found time to visit MetLife stadium and meet Eli Manning (see related article here). What a great start to the year it’s been!