Stephen Mack Middle School staff room gets a makeover, thanks to two 7th graders

Two students renovate Stephen Mack Middle School staff and retreat room

By Marianne Mueller

Reporter

Thanks to the efforts of two seventh grade students, Stephen Mack Middle School's staff and retreat room have a new look and vibe. Both students are now members of the National Junior Honor Society.

Kaitlin GeRue and her best friend Charley Rostamo chose to renovate the room as their NJHS project. They were joined by their parents in this endeavor.

"All of the other district staff retreat rooms are so pretty and homey for their staff," GeRue said, "but I felt like the middle school wasn't. It didn't feel like a lounge, but had more of a cafeteria style atmosphere.”

First the girls raised funds for the project by hosting a bake sale. “We had to find out what treats we should make to use in the sale,” GeRue said.

“We spent two full days baking and packaging the treats, and set up the tables. We ran the bake sale stand for a total of four hours.”

The next step was to research how to decorate the retreat room and how to budget for the project. GeRue and Rostamo did all of the shopping and budgeting.

As part of the overall project the students had to write a short summary of what the project was about, with photos.

"Before we had a chance to paint or decorate the room, we had a lot of shopping to do, both online and in store," Kaitlin said. "Charley and I spent two full days working at the school."

GeRue and Rostamo painted the refrigerator and the walls, hung the curtains, decorated a bulletin board, assembled a shelf, hung decorations on walls, assembled centerpieces and organized drawers and cabinets.

Their dads helped assemble the furniture and their moms helped with painting the walls and the cabinets.

Brand new furniture included a new couch, a sitting chair, an end table and a coffee bar.

Rostamo said, “My favorite part of the project was actually making all of the treats and selling them. I loved the experience of working beside my best friend.”

GeRue said, “My favorite part was getting to do all of the decorating and organizing. I loved getting to go to the stores and being able to pick out decor for the staff retreat room. It was fun getting to think about what others would like and what would look good. I also loved the chance to bake all of the treats with my best friend. We had so much fun together.”

All students who are invited and accepted into NJHS are required to have a GPA of 3.76 or higher, show leadership skills and good character, be a good citizen, complete a service project , and write an essay, Once all of these requirements are met, students are chosen by the school board.

GeRue said, "As part of NJHS we have to complete a total of five hours of community service and five hours of school service."

Outside of being active in NJHS, Gerue plays softball for the Shamrocks, plays in the school band and does tumbling.

Rostamo also does tumbling and is involved in competitive cheer leading with Wicked.

Rostamo said, “I am very happy with how everything turned out. After selling our baked goods we earned enough money to buy the furniture and decorations for the teachers lounge. Now we know they have a nice place to unwind.”