By Abigale Paterniti, News Editor
Every year the River Hill Independent Research Program (I/R) hosts an annual Valentine’s event, where cards are created and distributed around the school to each staff member at River Hill.
Students spent the week before February 14th decorating cards of pink and red hearts and writing kind words as an offer of thanks to the numerous staff members around the school. This includes every department from English and Math to the custodial and cafeteria staff.
Ms. Sharbaugh, the River Hill research teacher, expresses how her “favorite part is the cardmaking itself and seeing the students pause from their busy schedules” since “pausing just doing some arts and crafts is very important and meaningful.” This tradition has been around since before Mrs. Sharbaugh became the River Hill research teacher four years ago, and she has continued the tradition ever since. Mrs. Sharbaugh estimates that “this tradition has been going on for around 20 years, maybe more.”
The goal for this year’s event is simple, Mrs. Sharbaugh’s focus is on, “ensuring that students understand how important it is to personalize the cards as opposed to writing generic messages.” Each student is tasked with designing four unique cards. Junior Sonya Gupta explains how “I wrote cards for two of my favorite teachers and two staff in the front office who I am not familiar with.” For Sonya, her favorite card included colorful Valentine’s decorations attached to a pink card with a personalized message. How cute!
Sonya feels like this event encompasses her favorite part of Valentine’s Day in an atmosphere of gratitude. “I hope receiving my cards will at least put a smile on staff members’ faces, I would love for them to keep the cards because I know if I received one of these it would make my day.”
This is Sonya’s first year in Independent Research. She is sure that experiencing this event for the first time will stand out in her memories of Valentine’s Day. “I didn’t know anything about this celebration when I signed up for Independent Research, but I am so glad that we do it.”
Senior Neal Goturi, the Research Student Aid, is responsible for the organization of the event alongside Mrs. Sharbaugh. Neal is the designated student card connoisseur and is tasked with creating a spreadsheet that is used to keep track of all the staff members. This prevents any staff member from being accidentally left out of the process. Mrs. Sharbaugh explains further how “Neal does inventory of all our valentine supplies and to make sure we have enough materials.”
Junior Freya Patel, a second-year IR student, made cards for Mrs. De La Mar, Munding, Noecker, and Lauer. Freya emphasizes how this event reflects the benefit of Independent Research, “everything you put in you get out of IR.” In the midst of intense deadlines, the reward is card-making! Not only are these Valentine’s cards beneficial to the staff of River Hill, but Independent Research students find making the cards a way of relieving stress amid their research paper deadline. Sonya explains that “it is nice to take a little break from the stress of writing a research paper.” Mrs. Sharbaugh elaborates how “the majority of card making [is completed] here in school after students submit the first round of their research paper as a little reward for them.” Furthermore, the cards are meant as a “hands-on task that doesn’t involve technology… all in the spirit of gratitude to our amazing staff.”
Not only do the Valentine’s cards contribute to the event, but there are also cookies, chips and any snack you can imagine available to the staff in the staff lounge on Valentine’s Day. Each I/M and IR student signs up to bring decorations, utensils, napkins, cookies or snacks. All of this is neatly placed in the staff lounge by Ms. Sharbaugh and her student aid Neal.
After the event, staff members expressed gratitude for the cards they received. Mrs. Sharbaugh reflects how, “every year after the event, I get emails letting me know just how much this has meant to them.” For some teachers, they look forward to these cards every year and the yummy snacks they get to enjoy. “If you walk into the majority of classrooms here at River Hill nine times out of ten, you’re gonna see a Valentine’s card from a previous year hanging up on their wall or on their desk.” says Mrs. Sharbaugh, herself having numerous valentine cards of gratitude plastered on the wall above her desk.