Cooley Ranch Second Graders Bring Joy to Ronald McDonald House Patients

A pizza party, provided by John Mitchell, was in order after Dr. Eunice Moore’s second grade class from Cooley Ranch Elementary celebrated the accomplishment and completion of their class project. The project took shape after Moore, who has been teaching at Cooley Ranch for the past 19 years, called on her long time friend John Mitchell to help remedy a little meshing problem with her second grade class. Mitchell, an active member of the community who often volunteers at Cooley Ranch Elementary, has known Moore since his nephew – now 26 years old – was a student in Moore’s third/fourth grade class, and immediately agreed to help in any way he could. Mitchell and Moore wanted to get the class involved in some sort of group project that would get them to work together. Mitchell, with the idea of starting a project that would involve the whole class, gave a motivational speech to the class to help motivate them into action. “I gave them suggestions of things to do, like collecting something, writing letters to the VA Hospital, collecting pop tops. They were all pretty excited about a writing campaign, so that’s what they chose,” added Mitchell. After the speech the children elected a captain, and two lieutenants to lead the class and help select a project they wanted to participate in: Marquice, Ethan, and Christian, respectively. The class ultimately decided they wanted to write letters for children fighting illnesses at the Ronald McDonald House in Loma Linda. Once the class leaders were elected and the project chosen, the students then came up with the idea of how to execute the project. “As we kept talking about it the kids were getting so excited,” said Mitchell, who shares that he knew the project would teach them to think big and reach for the stars. “One phrase I kept repeating was ‘I have the power.’ We want them to believe in themselves.” Moore explained that Mitchell’s speech helped her students stay motivated and work hard during the project. According to Moore and Mitchell the project is a creative way of implementing the curriculum of having to learn how to write a proper letter. “We want them to know how to spell properly and have correct grammar. Doctors, nurses, and adults will be reading these letters and we want to show we can write letters, so we incorporated that curriculum here,” adds Mitchell. Moore added that she only helped provide the spelling and ideas of how to best cards would be. “We’re trying to keep them compassionate,” shared Moore. That compassion didn’t stop with the second grade class, however. Mitchell added that the students also wanted to get their school, family, and friends involved in the project. News of this project spread as far as Cal State University San Bernardino. “I had aunties, uncles, and cousins writing letters as well,” said Moore. The project lasted for two weeks but the results were impressive. In those two weeks more than 300 cards and letters were collected and sent to the Ronald McDonald House. Moore and Mitchell couldn’t be more proud. “This shows them that they’re not just a second grader. I was telling them, they can do all kinds of things,” said Mitchell. “Plenty of young people have started non-profits that help other people. You can be more than what you are because you choose to be more.”