Based on the sheer amount of work that putting on such an event entails – hundreds
of hours, much of it during Clemente Milne’s and Bognar’s spare time – the teachers
decided that the fundraiser could take place every two years. That way, all Woodbury
students would experience it once during their time at the school. “It makes it more
special,” says Bognar.
The event was also renamed to Woodbury Creating Change to broaden its scope.
“Art is all about creativity and trying new things, so we thought maybe we could come
up with a name to encompass what we want to do, which is to always use art and to
always include some kind of community service,” explains Clemente Milne.
Mugs, mugs, and more mugs
By spring 2013, Clemente Milne and Bognar were experimenting with what the art students
would make for Woodbury Creating Change with their sixth-grade classes. They settled on
mugs. “We were able to work out the bugs of making the mugs, and we also knew we could
scale it to the level we’d need,” explains Bognar.
There were other changes too. In the two years between Souper Bowl and Creating
Change, Shaker had implemented the International Baccalaureate program at Woodbury.
Among the emphases of the IB program:
the arts and community service. Creating
Change offered a chance to combine those
at Woodbury, while also intersecting with
the curriculum in other ways. For example,
Woodbury’s all-school book read – Home of
the Brave by Katherine Applegate – helped
inspire the list of not-for-profits that
benefited from this year’s Creating Change.
The book’s main character, Kek, is a refugee
from the Darfur region of the Sudan, sent
to live in Minnesota.
“Three out of the four not-for-profits
work with refugees, so the students were that
much more invested,” says Clemente Milne.
Before the all-school read, three
Sudanese refugees associated with one
of those not-for-profits, Personal Wishes
of Sudanese Lost Boys of Cleveland,
visited Woodbury, a profound experience.
Meanwhile, students in some sixth-grade
science classes spent part of the year
learning about water quality. Another of the
not-for-profits, Isaac’s Wells, helps villagers
in the Darfur region of Sudan dig wells for
clean drinking water. The two other notfor
profits picked for Creating Change: US
Together, which also works with refugees,
and the Hunger Network in Shaker.
Of course, the major focus of the
school year for Clemente Milne and
Bognar was working with students,
staff, and community members to create
the thousand-plus mugs to be sold at
Woodbury Creating Change. This was
no small task (see the sidebar, “Creating
Change by the Numbers”) and it started
with the hunt for the “perfect” plastic mold.
“I went to every Walmart and other store
that sells plastic-ware in this area,” jokes
Bognar. Once they found it – the mold was
actually made out of two plastic items, a
bowl and a cup – Bognar poured 180 plaster
molds to facilitate the mug-making process.
Next came preparing the clay, which
involved rolling more than a thousand onepound
chunks into nine-inch circles that
could be pressed around Bognar’s molds.
Thanks to an anonymous donation, the
school was able to purchase a new slab
roller to speed up the operation. Funds for
Creating Change were also provided via
grants from the Woodbury PTO, the Shaker
Heights Teachers’ Association, and the
Shaker Schools Foundation.
In addition to the 800‐plus Woodbury students who made mugs, about 100
Woodbury staff members and 200 community members participated in special
mug‐making days, bringing the total number of mugs to over 1,100 – and raising
more than $8,500 for four selected charities. Photo by Colleen McCreary
SHAKER LIFE | SUMMER 2014 49