German students get hands-on experience in community service in Marion County
Apr. 29—FAIRMONT — During a busy two-week trip to the United States, a group of ninth grade students completed a day of community service for various Marion County organizations.
Four chaperones and 18 students spent Wednesday volunteering at the Soup Opera, the Disability Action Center, the Community Garden and Main Street Fairmont.
Their teacher and Fairmont native, Mindy Kerekes-Schlaizer, has spent the last 20 years living in Germany and teaching English at International High School Pierre Trudeau. She has taken three groups of students to visit the United States and wanted to make sure they were immersed in the culture while they were here.
"My main goals are that they get to know the American culture and also to improve their language skills. So, I just tried to pick different activities where they could get in contact with people," Kerekes-Schlaizer said.
During their trip, students spent a day and a half at East Fairmont High, they spent three days in Washington, D.C., climbed rocks at Coopers Rock, hiked Valley Falls, went to a movie with a Baptist Temple youth group and attended a Pittsburgh Pirates game, among other things.
Kerekes-Schlaizer said the students really enjoyed being in West Virginia, as their home in Magdeburg, which is one hour from Berlin, Germany, is not very mountainous.
"As soon as we hit West Virginia, they turned on Country Roads on the radio. We were jamming. They said the people are so kind and really so open minded. They just come to them and are really polite," Kerekes-Schlaizer said.
Some students said they really enjoyed their time in the United States. They said they enjoyed meeting other high school students, seeing Washington, exploring the mountains of West Virginia and helping out in the community.
"We think more people need to help others. It isn't a waste of time and it's fun. It's good to know that you can help people," Ninth grade student Jasper Jaenicke said.
Two other students, Oliver Reckert and Thresea Kirchner shared similar sentiments.
"It's (the United States) different from Europe or Germany. It's interesting, but we all like it," Reckert said.
"And the people are way nicer," Kirchner said.
Kerekes wanted to make sure the trip was well-rounded, so she reached out to the Tygart Valley United Way. The United Way planned three two-hour blocks of volunteer work, which included preparing food, turning over and renumbering garden beds, cutting out stencils to be used to decorate crosswalks and working as carpenters.
Main Street Fairmont Program Manager Shelby Dillon and MCPARC Community Garden Coordinator Megan Eakin said they really appreciated the help.
"Today's going really well. They are picking up the ideas really quickly and they've been eager to help," Dillon said.
Eakin shared similar sentiments.
"I am so excited, I feel it is super pertinent to the community to understand what we do down here. So it's super beneficial to the organization that I work for, to making people more aware of the garden and itself. Having a group of teenagers down here to help out with that is a learning experience I'm sure for them and it's a learning experience for me because I'm this is my first time hosting a group like this down here," Eakin said.
There are still a few beds available to rent at the Community Garden. For more information, visit the Community Garden from three to six p.m..
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