By Brenna Wiegand
There are several reasons to be excited about the Santa Mouse Holiday Bazaar. There’s the opportunity to buy handmade holiday gifts from as many as 100 local vendors. There will be food, a silent auction – and babysitting. It’s put on by the Basic Skills class at Silverton High School, a major fundraiser for the class.
There’s all the fun the class has making items to sell in addition to cranking out extra bags of their trademark from-scratch dog biscuits sold year round.
Teacher Brian Satern is new this year but he can tell it’s a big deal.
“The kids are pumped up about it,” Satern said. “I have no idea what to expect right now but I know Mary (Rankin, his predecessor) has done a great job with it and the kids get really excited.”
What’s really exciting, Satern said, are the many opportunities those supplemental funds open up for the students in and out of the classroom.
For instance, their monthly visit to Green Acres Animal Sanctuary, which fell on Halloween, making for a doubly fun day.
After cleaning up after 19 ducks, Will Silcox and Richie Wellesley were greatly rewarded by the lavish affections of nine tiny German Shepherd puppies just rescued off the streets of Tijuana.
“We take care of dogs; we watch them at school for the teachers,” Silcox said, referring to the class’ doggie daycare service. At last year’s Santa Mouse, Silcox sold work from two years of art classes.
“I’m making a coloring book for Santa Mouse,” Wellesley said, disentangling his sock from some puppy teeth. “Last year I had Volume I – all the characters from the Godzilla movie. This year I’m doing monsters.”
“Last year I got to do some of my sewing to make crafts,” Tonya Seledkov said.
“This gives them pride and ownership in what they’re doing with the gifts and abilities they have,” Satern said. “You just meet kids where they’re at.”
“We hit on academics; on students’ needs,” Satern said. “It might be helping a kid with a personal finance class and some I’m teaching basic math and how to count change; very functional living skills for these students.”
“It’s been really fun; it’s full of joy and in the classroom everyone laughs and has a good time,” said educational assistant Haley Shell. “Mr. Satern really loves the kids; he is invested in their education and their futures, and he tries to get kids skills in areas they’re interested in to help set them up.”
“These guys have great senses of humor, they want to please; they want to work hard,” educational assistant Kim White said. “It’s a fun day of work.”
“We just had a student go on a job interview,” Shell said. “So it’s getting a resume together and job interview skills, that kind of thing, so then when they graduate they can go out and be in the world – it’s cool.”
One student volunteers every day at a local restaurant – the kind of valuable experience, Satern said, that can lead to a job. Wednesdays after volunteering at SACA food bank the class always stops at Roth’s for ingredients because that’s also the day they have cooking class.
“They learn to make their own pizza, chocolate chip cookies stuff that they can do at home,” Satern said. “These things – cooking class ingredients, field trips, classroom supplies, iPads; anything that’s going to help our students be successful – this is what that money goes to.”
