NES "shop" an educational approach to fundraising
BY STEVE SHEPPARD INDEPENDENT WRITER
If it's Wednesday it must be the red cluster, and by 7:45 a.m. students are already lining up behind a cart that looks curiously like Lucy's psychiatrist stand.

Students from Mike Girvin's fifth grade class and their "shop." ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent

Every morning students from Mr. Girvin's fifth grade class wheel their "shop" to a different section of the elementary school, where teachers and students can purchase any of a variety of items from pens and pencils to water bottles and bumper stickers. The hot sellers right now are calculators, thermoses and Post-it pads.

So far, business has been good. In the first seven days alone, the fifth graders netted $2,200 in profit. The proceeds will help underwrite the costs of the fifth grade yearbook and, if sales continue, will be put towards the fifth grade trip to Boston's Freedom Trail later this year.

The in-school store was born of necessity. For years, the fifth graders had sold cartons of fruit to raise money to cover yearbook expenses. The California frost, however, not only damaged this year's crop but wiped out any chance of orange and grapefruit sales. Mike Girvin and his class brainstormed alternative ways to raise money and the Nantucket Elementary School "Shop" became reality.

Using donated plywood and hardware from Island Lumber, a startup grant of $1,500 from the Friends of the Nantucket Public Schools to stock the shop, and the help of Poet's Corner Press with print supplies, Mr. Girvin's class transformed their idea into reality, while Girvin took the opportunity to use the project as a practical teaching tool. The students planned the look of their business, Girvin cut the wood and brought it back to school in sections, and then taught his class woodworking techniques as they assembled the pieces and painted the wood.

The next step was in deciding what to sell. As Cara Godlesky, who was one of three students manning the shop last Friday, explained, "We decided to sell stuff that has our school name on it."

The items promote school pride, and the dividends of running a small business are paying off in more than dollars and cents. "It's teaching them all kinds of different math skills," Girvin proudly noted, pointing out that he doesn't allow students to use one of the calculators they sell when taking in money or balancing the books. "They are learning about markup percentages, profit margins, maintaining inventory and the need to diversify their products."

The latter point was patiently explained to this reporter last Friday when the shop was set up in the kindergarten cluster. Sales were slow, but wait a week or two, student salespeople Godlesky, Miguel Mercado and Jamie Buhler said, when an expected delivery of Teddy Bears - outfitted in NES T-shirts - would pique the interest of the younger children more than water bottles or coffee mugs. "We have to make sure we're marketing correctly," Godleskey noted.

Shop responsibilites rotate among the class, and the shopkeepers for the day arrive early to set things up and roll the shop to that day's cluster. This week, Mr. Girvin's class will teach other fifth graders how to operate the shop, so that the whole fifth grade will eventually share in the enjoyment of running the business.

The plan is to operate the shop year-round. "The profits will perpetuate it," Girvin said.

The benefits will be a yearbook for every fifth grader and the possibilities of a trip to Boston completely financed by the class itself. That in itself will teach the students about superior job performance. They already know that the paybacks are not just educational. "This is more fun than selling fruit," Mercado said.

And just wait until the tote bags

come in. I