Students Showcase Community Service Project to Visitors, Legislators
BOSTON – Senator Michael O. Moore (D-Millbury) and Representative David K. Muradian, Jr. (R-Grafton) announced the arrival of the Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School SkillsUSA Community Service Team to the State House as part of the Team’s effort to promote their “ROOTS” project.
ROOTS, or “Reaching Our Optimal Tranquil State,” is a student-led initiative that supports managing and reducing stress in order to achieve a peaceful state of mind. The project achieves its objectives through creative and informative flyers, bookmarks, posters, and presentations that discuss the causes of stress and how to sustain ways of managing and reducing stress among individuals in the community. SkillsUSA Advisors Francis Petty and Rebecca Corda, who are also vocational instructors at BVT, accompanied the team to the State House.
“I applaud the Team for their enthusiastic and thoughtful approach to helping their peers and the community at-large,” said Senator Moore. “Stress impacts millions of Americans across the country and may lead to harmful health conditions with long-term impacts. Understanding the signs of stress and how to avoid it is important for people of all ages.”
"Stress is inevitable in everyone's lives,” said teammate Olivia Setzer from Douglas. “Learning how to cope with it in a positive manner at a young age sets the foundation for an individual to deal with it in a healthy way for the rest of their lives. Our team has been working for months to emphasize our message, and we've repeatedly gotten positive feedback from our community."
"Having the opportunity to go out into our community and show our project is a great opportunity to show others how to manage and reduce stress,” said teammate Kelley Muanya from Milford. “Following a school seminar our team held, a student approached me and told me about how he had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The student explained to me that stress is hard for him and the best way to express himself is through art, and that our presentation had helped him realize that, that afternoon by finding new ways to manage his stress. Being able to have the feeling that we, as a team, impacted someone's life is well worth the time and energy we put into our project."
"With every visit to promote our project's message, comes another rewarding memory,” said teammate Mina Dehestani from Millville. “In today's visit to the Massachusetts's State House, a woman visiting from the United Kingdom showed deep interest in the Zen-Garden box our team brought along with us. As an educator, she is continuously searching for ways to interact with students in a way that relates to them. After discussing the benefits this Garden has to students, she shared with my team and I that she'd like to implement this coping technique back home in her school's classrooms. As a team, we are thankful for the opportunity to further spread our message today with our community."
“The SkillsUSA Community Service Team at BVT should be very proud of all of their hard work,” said Representative Muradian. “I want to take this moment to thank the team for their dedication to the community, as well as their commitment to the overall health for the residents in our Commonwealth.”
While at the State House, the Team provided informational materials to visitors, legislators and others in support of their initiative. The students will head to the state competition being held from April 27th to 29th in Marlborough. Teams that advance from the state competition will compete at the national competition in Louisville, KY from June 19th to 23rd. More than 16,000 people including students, teachers and business partners are expected to participate in the weeklong event.
Founded in 1965, SkillsUSA has served more than 11.2 million individuals and is committed to its mission of “empowering its members to become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens.”