This month the girls’ book club read a story I absolutely loved: Absolutely Truly by Heather Vogel Frederick. It’s a sweet story about a girl whose family has been through some really hard things, and the sailing isn’t all smooth yet. The main character, a girl named Truly, remains positive and respectful despite the hard stuff. I really love seeing a middle grade book about someone who doesn’t rebel but works through his/her problems. You can read more about Truly here.
As always, we started out the day by summarizing the story and talking about the choices that Truly makes and the things that happen to her family. There’s lots of meat in this book!
Truly’s dad recently lost an arm while serving in the military. He’s struggling with all of the changes in his life, which impacts the entire family – and in real life, the Wounded Warrior Project serves to help families just like Truly’s. We decided to help them by holding our own bake sale, Absolutely Truly style. The girls split into groups to get everything accomplished before it was time to get selling, and then they rotated through the stations so that they could all try each one.
Some of the girls broke out markers and poster board of sizes to advertise the sale. They even thought ahead to make one that we could post on the community bulletin board of our local Sheetz!
This group worked to bake the whoopie pies we planned to sell. One mixed them up, and when more girls were free, they came to help, mixing icing and getting the cookie pieces baked. The girls decided that traditional chocolate whoopie pies might sell better than the pumpkin ones from the book, especially since they’re not usually seen around here, so we went with my great-grandmother’s recipe.
I love the user-friendly interface of PicMonkey, and I use it often. My kids like to play around with making graphics for school and for fun projects, too, and so this pair made a graphic that I could share on Facebook to spread the word about their bake sale. They did a great job!
The girls bagged their whoopie pies in sandwich bags and ate their lunches. We all had to try a whoopie pie, too – quality control is important, right? Then we headed off to our local Tractor Supply store, where the staff is always super supportive of kids trying to help others.
They set up their table outside the door and under the roof, which was great as the forecast was a little sketchy and it was pretty cold. Their digital advertising worked really well, though – one older man was there waiting for whoopie pies when we got there! He wasn’t sure what a whoopie pie was, but he wanted to help our Wounded Warriors – and we were excited to provide the opportunity.
The girls giggled and asked everyone who passed by if they wanted to support Wounded Warriors with whoopie pies, and people were really generous. They sold every single whoopie pie within an hour and had to turn people away. It was a wonderful afternoon!
By the end of the sale, the girls had raised more than $130 to send to the Wounded Warrior Project. Not bad for a day’s work in middle school, right?
We had a blast with Absolutely Truly, and I wanted to be able to share the fun with you! I’ve created a book club project back to accompany this book. In it, you’ll find ideas for holding your own Wounded Warrior Fundraiser, as well as club shirt ideas, birding ideas, recipes, and much more. If that’s not your thing, there are other ways to bring it to life with your students here.
What are your kids reading right now?
I’ll have to check out the book. What a great way to incorporate what the girls learned and provide service. Thanks for linking up with us at Encouraging Hearts & Home.
Thank you! It’s a great story, perfect for book club or family discussion. We love to be able to incorporate service projects into our learning adventures whenever possible.
Thanks for stopping by!
~ Amy