On Saturday, Sept. 29, the Alliance Digital and Altitude Academy hosted a community wide yard sale to raise money for student incentive days every nine weeks.
\r\nVendors attending the sale, sold everything from porcelain dolls to shoes to small kitchen appliances. Anybody in the community was welcome to attend the yard sale. The only stipulation was they couldn’t sell food without a vendor's license.
\r\n“We have a little mix of everybody,” said Stacey Yamamoto, secretary of the Academy. “Community, teachers, students.”
One of the vendors was L’riyah Prather, a ninth grade student at the Digital Academy. Prather had gone above and beyond in her classes each week of the school year. As part of the school’s curriculum, students work on an online program called Acellus. Each student is expected to complete 27.5 hours of “Time on Task” each week. Prather completed far more “Time on Task” hours than necessary, and in doing so, was rewarded with her own table at the yard sale.
\r\n“She is here to gain some entrepreneurial experience,” said Portia Johnson, principal of the Digital Academy.
\r\nPrather was able to bring some clothes and shoes of her own to sell along with the other vendors.
\r\nShe wasn’t the only student who attended the yard sale. The students attending the Academy were encouraged to volunteer and interact with all the community members who either shopped or were vendors for the morning.
\r\n“Since we’re in the Community Center, we really want to engage them in the community more,” Johnson said.
\r\nShe believes it is important for them engage with the community and to show the positive effect the Academy is having on the lives of the local nontraditional students.
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The students who attended were able to count their time at the yard sale as part of their community service requirements for school.
\r\nThe Alliance Digital and Altitude Academy weren’t the only ones at the yard sale. The Alliance Career Center had an informational stand for community members to stop by while they shopped.