Late Belleville East counselor remembered with scholarship

The family of Chyriell Drain-Hill started a scholarship in the late Belleville East counselor’s name to keep her “forever associated” with education.

Drain-Hill’s church, New Life in Christ Interdenominational Church, helped her family establish the Chyriell Drain-Hill Memorial Scholarship Fund. The scholarship was announced at her funeral on April 23. Drain-Hill died April 17.

“This has been a difficult time for all who knew Chyriell,” said Bishop Geoffrey V. Dudley, senior pastor of New Life in Christ Church. “She wanted to change the lives of young people. This scholarship will allow her name to be forever associated with education.”

New Life will match all donations to the scholarship up to $5,000. It will be awarded during the church’s annual scholarship program in June and available for distribution during the 2016-2017 college academic year.

Contributions to the scholarship fund are tax deductible and can be mailed to New Life in Christ Interdenominational Church, Attn: Chyriell Drain-Hill Scholarship Fund, 689 Scott-Troy Road, O’Fallon, IL 62254. Donations can be made online at www.nlicic.org/donate. Write “scholarship” in the other category in the memo section before confirming. For more information contact Dagne Barton at 618-622-6707 or via email at dbarton@nlicic.org.

STEM at SPPCS

The gym at Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic School was split into four areas for a Family STEM Night on April 23. Students and families had hands-on activities in science, technology, engineering and math like designing a fishing pole with craft materials and creating codes to program Ozobots. The night also had activities for preschool-aged children. In the early engineers area for preschool children, they built marble runs out of phone tubes and connected PVC pipes to make forts. Teachers and seventh-graders from SPPCS volunteered for the evening.

Chess for everyone

Henry Raab students recently built their own chess sets with help from volunteers from the Schmidt Art Center at Southwestern Illinois College. The “Chess Connection” program teaches children about the game and allows each child to make a chess set with Sculpey, a clay that remains soft until baked. Teacher Kim Showalter says the “chess ladies” worked with the class of 30 during six visits, helping the students develop a theme and personal design. Showalter said the lessons appealed to visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners in the fourth grade.

Collinsville wins award

Collinsville High School’s Student Council has again been named a National Gold Council of Excellence. The award is given by the National Association of Student Councils to those that demonstrate the highest levels of leadership in maintaining strong year-round programs and improve the school and community through activities. It is the 10th year the school has earned the award; Collinsville is one of seven Gold Councils in Illinois for 2016.

Teacher Kyle Gordon is the Collinsville council’s adviser.

Criteria the council had to meet to attain Gold Council status includes a written constitution, leadership training for members; teacher and staff appreciation activities and community service projects.

Cybersecurity camp

A few students from Smithton School, Signal Hill, Harmony Intermediate and Emge Junior High and Belle Valley will learn about cyber safety and security this summer at a CyberPatriot Camp at Smithton. The Air Force Association’s camp is geared toward enticing students to cybersecurity or other STEM disciplines. For more information, go to https://goo.gl/oh2MR9.

Smithton teachers going to state capitol

Smithton Principal Vicki Norton will be among the local representatives at the TECH 2016 event May 10 at the Illinois State Capitol Building. More than 100 schools are participating in the 25th annual event to increase awareness about how technology plays a role in preparing students for success. The schools will be presenting to the Illinois State Senate and the House of Representatives as well as the public, and student demonstrations will be in the Capitol Building Rotunda.

Kindergarten teacher Kelly Beggs and two of her students, Demi Hopkins and Cooper DeRossett, will assist Norton in the demonstration. They’ll show how Smithton kindergarten through second-grade students have gone paperless by using iPads; and parent involvement and student engagement has also increased.

Crash course in safety

About 1,500 Belleville East students saw crash photos and video from Illinois State Police trooper Calvin Dye in a presentation meant to drive home a message right before prom and summer.

“We wanted to make it a reminder of the importance of making good decisions with friends, whether it be about seat belts, drinking and driving, or texting,” said Brian Geluck, the school’s department chair of driver education, health and physical education.

He said the leading cause of death for teenagers is vehicular accidents.

Dye showed the classes of freshman through seniors graphic crash photos as well as videos of crashes, and the results of crashes involving people who were not wearing seat belts.

Money to learn about – money

Lutheran schools in Collinsville and East St. Louis each received a $1,000 grant from Wells Fargo and United Way of Greater St. Louis.

The 2016 Financial Education Community Grant, awarded through the Lutheran Elementary School Association, provides basic management money tools, skills and information on building a budget, building credit wisely, avoiding debt and paying for higher education.

The grants went to Holy Cross Lutheran School, with 164 students in early childhood through eighth grade, and Unity Lutheran Christian School has 187 pre-K through eighth-grade students.

Tech talks

▪  Whiteside Middle School will be among 100 schools in the state to participate in the Annual TECH 2016 Demonstration at the Illinois State Capitol on May 10. Students will show the Illinois state senators and representatives how technology is used to increase student engagement and improve achievement.

Whiteside students will present “ELA/STEAM Children’s Energy Book Project” from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Capitol Building. The demonstrations are open to the public, and last from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m. on May 10.

▪  Metro East Montessori, a pre-K through sixth-grade school in Granite City, won a $41,000 grant from Innovative Technology Education Fund to create a “FarMaker Space.” The space will be used to teach students problem-solving in agriculture.

The school is one of six in the greater St. Louis area to win a grant from ITEF; all the other schools are in Missouri. Grants totaled $260,000 this year, the organization has provided more than $2 million to schools since 2008.

Awards night

Collinsville Key Club had its first-ever Kahok Awards Night on April 21, where the student-lead organization were recognized with high school accolades. Emma Weil, president of the club, said Key Club is the “high school version of Kiwanis, and just like them our main focus is service.” Money raised through the Awards Night went to The Spastic Paralysis Research Foundation.

Collinsville High School seniors walked the red carpet to get into the event, where they were honored with “Best Hair” or “Most Personality.”

Earth Day

Fifth and sixth graders at St. John Neumann celebrated Earth Day on April 20 by planting flowers and providing yard work to each of the three parish campuses. They raked leaves and trimmed shrubs at Mother of Perpetual Help in Maryville, St. Cecilia Church in Glen Carbon, and St. Jerome Church in Troy. Focal Pointe Outdoor Solutions sponsored the event, providing materials and expert help at each location.

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 12:03 PM with the headline "Late Belleville East counselor remembered with scholarship."