For more than thirty years, Steve VanDam has been teaching at Sebring High School in Highlands County, Florida. Alongside Kristy Harris, a fellow art teacher, he helps coordinate an annual fundraising event called Soup for the Arts. The event brings together students and community members to raise money for local families facing hardship.
Since its start in 2000, Soup for the Arts has grown significantly. In its first year, VanDam’s students raised just over $1,000. Now, the event consistently raises about $25,000 each year. This year’s beneficiaries included a family with a child needing a liver transplant and a high school junior with lung cancer.
Soup for the Arts takes place on the third Thursday in February and involves hundreds of community members who come to enjoy soup and purchase student-made bowls. This year alone, more than 1,700 servings of soup were prepared.
VanDam explained that his own childhood experiences inspired him to create this fundraiser: “I lost my mother to cancer when I was only nine years old and was touched by how the community and my church came together to help my family in their time of struggle. So, when I began my teaching career I wanted to ‘find something I could do as a way to give back…this is in memory of her and helps keep her memory alive.’” He emphasized involving students directly so they could “learn the value of community.”
Harris described watching students develop through their involvement: “They come in as freshmen and join art club and get sucked in and love it so much that they make it all the way to senior year. And we have several students who come back (after graduation) and become sponsors. Soup for the Arts becomes part of them, and they become part of us. They grow and we get to watch it, and it’s so awesome.”
Both teachers credited their students for making Soup for the Arts successful each year. Over eighty students volunteered this year, handling tasks from organizing donations with local restaurants to decorating the venue and selecting recipient families. Harris said: “We’re just the orchestrators here; the kids are the ones who are out there doing the thing and making the event look awesome. We wouldn’t have an event if it weren’t for them.”
VanDam offered advice for educators interested in similar projects: “Having programs like this is a lot of work, but seeing what kids get out of it—you can’t even speak words to say. We’re here to help them be a better person and to see what the world is like in a positive way.”
Stories like these highlight how educators across Florida impact their communities beyond academics by helping students learn important life lessons outside standardized tests.
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