This winter, a new initiative began in Room 142, the Life Skills Support classroom, with the original goal of teaching students practical, lifelong skills while raising money for Mini-THON. Mrs. Andrea Royer, one of the Life Skills teachers, launched a faculty café run by the students with support from their teachers. As the project grew, the students decided to shift their focus and donate the proceeds to support one of their BASD classmates, Rees Stewart, who had been diagnosed with cancer.
For most of the year on monthly Friday mornings until 11 a.m., any faculty member could walk down to Room 142 and have a student take their order, hand them their food or drink, and ring them up. Every week a new menu with their usual items, such as energy balls and coffee, along with a few different feature items, like coffee cake. Sometimes the menu would have a theme for a holiday like Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. Not only was the cafe special for its customers, but it provided a lot to the students.
“It was really learning and understanding and being able to use functional skills that maybe they didn’t have before, but a feeling of pride, and a feeling of being a part of a community that they aren’t typically apart of,” Mrs. Royer said.
The Life Skill students most of the day in their classroom, which can lead to them feeling left out from the rest of the school community.
“The teachers coming in every week, and meeting the students, and learning their names, made a difference,” Mrs. Royer said.
This socialization helped with the “containment” of the room. The students did also develop the sense of pride that Mrs. Royer had hoped for them.
“It feels good, it feels good to help a friend,” Braeden said, a Life Skills student said.
However, Evan is closest with Rees out of all of them, going as far to say that they are “like brothers.” They often go camping and play video games together.
“Since we made this cafe we have proven a lot by giving strength to Rees and helping him achieve his goal to become stronger,” Evan said.
Evan and Rees have had a “strong bond” for the past four years now. All of the students and teachers’ hard work did pay off in the end, when they were able to donate $1,000 to Rees and his family, and this generous act did not go unnoticed by the Stewart family.
“We are very touched by all that you did to support Rees both while he was in the hospital, and since he has been able to return home and get back to having a normal life. We are so impressed with all that you achieve each week in planning, preparing and executing your cafe,” Rees’s family said in a note to the students.
They are excited for Rees to have the chance to work the Brew Crew next year himself. As Rees is back at home now and healthy, the Stewarts plan on passing the Brew Crew’s success on to another child battling Cancer, Ewing Sarcoma, by donating a portion of the fundraising to their family.
The Brew Crew was able to bring much joy while working at their goal for Rees, not only with the Life Skills Support classroom, but within the rest of the school faculty as well. A new sense of community was formed within Bellefonte, as people bonded over the Brew Crew’s success. Now after supporting Rees throughout this year, he is now healthier than ever in remission, we look to next year in hopes that the Brew Crew will return.
