{"id":7670,"date":"2025-05-28T14:11:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T18:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=7670"},"modified":"2025-05-29T11:53:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T15:53:22","slug":"giving-to-the-communi-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=7670","title":{"rendered":"Giving to the Communi-tree"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1st Place, News Story<\/strong>
2024-25, Division 4, News Writing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Sharon Chang & Jenny Sun<\/strong>
The Day Times
Detroit Country Day School<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standing in the front lobby looking at the gift tags hanging on the tree, eighth grader Dylan Fitzgerald was stuck. He could not decide between donating the Lego set or the warm sweater to the Cass Community Center.

As weather starts to get cold and leaves start to fall, Detroit Country Day begins its holiday celebration and its spirit of giving. Every year, the Community Service Club in the lower, middle, and upper school hosts the \u201cOne Country Day Holiday Delivery\u201d to make sure everyone can enjoy the holiday gift-giving spirit.

On November 18, all campuses started collecting gift donations. In the upper school, Christmas trees with gift tags on the branches were located in the front lobby and the library. These gifts were distributed to Cass Community Social Services on December 12. Cass then brought those gifts to families the following Monday.

Last year, together with its 100 employees the Cass Community Social Services provided gifts and clothing items to 1,500 people.

\u201cThe One Country Day Holiday Giving Delivery gives students the opportunity of giving back to the city of Detroit and building empathy during the holiday times,\u201d said Laura Beachum, organizer of the middle school event.

Beachum believes that it is important for our community to share with those who
are less fortunate and connect together. Upper school community service member
and event organizer Ty Rosenberg also agrees with the community connection and gift-giving culture of the holidays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether it is watching a Christmas movie, or singing a holiday song, the holidays should
be a time free of stress and filled with jubilation. The \u2018One Country Day Holiday Delivery\u2019 is a way to provide experiences to those who aren\u2019t as privileged as a lot of us at DCDS,\u201d said Rosenberg.

The Community Service Club in the upper school worked hard to collaborate with the middle and lower school campuses to make sure this event was a success. Alexa Keramidas, president of the Community Service Club, believes that there is an evident benefit when working with the middle school campus.

\u201cWhen the drive is over, the community service clubs bring all the donations down to the middle school during one of the club meeting times. It\u2019s really nice to be physically connected to the middle school campus because it\u2019s easy to transfer the gifts. We don\u2019t
have to rent anything or spend extra money,\u201d said Keramidas.

Since the start of this tradition nine years ago, students have enjoyed their experience of giving back. This holiday giving drive has helped teach two important lessons during the holiday season: giving back and coming together.

Laura Beachum added, \u201cEach DCDS campus may have different drives and
activities to support the event, but we all work together as one community to give back to Cass.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NW-02. News Story<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

News stories should report but not interpret events that have news value and timeliness to the publication\u2019s readers. Advance stories may be included in this category; follow-up stories should be submitted in NW-03. Submit a PDF of the print page(s) on which the story was published or the URL to the story on an online news site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JUDGING CRITERIA<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Sharp, attention-getting lead that underscores news story importance<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The most important, relevant and timely information is near the beginning of the story<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Emphasizes news elements, i.e. timeliness, nearness, impact, and prominence<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Shows thorough reporting skills; develops an understanding of the issues\/problems through interviews with varied and balanced sources<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Effective use of facts\/quotes gathered predominantly from primary sources. Secondary sources, if used, are cited appropriately.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Avoids opinion unless properly attributed<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Sentences, paragraphs of varied length; written clearly, concisely, and vividly<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Proper diction\/grammar; use of third person<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    1st Place, News Story2024-25, Division 4, News Writing By Sharon Chang & Jenny SunThe Day TimesDetroit Country Day School Standing in the front lobby looking at the gift tags hanging on the tree, eighth grader Dylan Fitzgerald was stuck. He could not decide between donating the Lego set or the warm sweater to the Cass […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[50,4],"tags":[217,23],"class_list":["post-7670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-newsstory","category-nw","tag-2024-25","tag-division4","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Mikayla Mazza","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=14"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-1ZI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}