Teachers at Wallace Elementary School frequently attempt to extend pupils’ awareness beyond the classroom, says sixth-grader teacher Babs Dodd.

Canned food drives and clothing donations make students aware of community needs, and after reading a book about an abused dog, fourth graders at the school recently raised funds and purchased cat litter and pet food for the SPCA.

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Still, some lessons are learned more poignantly than others. As Dodd worked last fall to educate her class about Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS), actor Michael Zaslow passed away. Zaslow, an ALS sufferer, had corresponded with Dodd’s class. His death gave an immediacy to the subject the students would not otherwise have received.

“It was such a sad thing,” Dodd says. “We felt like we had known him personally.”