Previously a Learn and Serve - Michigan grantee from 2001 to 2007, Honey Creek has engaged its students in various service-learning projects, including community partners such as the National Wildlife Foundation, the LEAGUE, and the Huron River Watershed Council.  The school's curriculum does not use text books so each teacher is responsible for creating content and projects that are aligned.

"We have had a steady group of teachers for the last five years who have attended service-learning trainings," says Sue Hofbauer, service-learning coordinator at the school.  "They know what they are doing and they can just naturally build things into their curriculum and build community partnerships [for service-learning]."

In the past few years one specific service-learning project has become Honey Creek's calling card, thanks to teacher Joe Griffith.  The two-day Bartering Bonanza is the culmination of two subject units, homelessness and microeconomics.  Griffith teaches social studies on a three-year cycle for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.  While preparing to teach the two subjects in 2006 he brainstormed a service-learning project that could help his students understand their impact on the community and the excitement of running a business.  Thus the Bartering Bonanza was born and was recently re-implemented in 2009.

The event serves as a quasi swap meet, economics lesson, and fundraiser for the Robert J. Delonis Center, a homeless shelter in Ann Arbor.  Students in kindergarten through fifth grade serve as participants and bring in items from the Center's "wish list" (i.e. toiletries or clothing) while sixth through eighth graders serve as entrepreneurs and are required to create exchangeable products (i.e. snacks or crafts).  At the two-day event students go wild swapping items, all based on a point system. 

Griffith says overall the student's reactions to the 2009 event were positive.

"Many of them said they really felt like they understand now what it means to run a business," he says.  "They also realized the economic concepts I taught had to be understood first-hand in order for them to be successful during the Bonanza."

Leading up to the event, Griffith's students take part in its planning process.  They conduct market research on Honey Creek's younger students to gauge what kind of products will be most popular.  All older students are also in charge of their product's production, even operating costs.  Students may apply for mini-grants, use their allowance, or fundraise to purchase product materials - but they are not allowed to ask for money from their parents.

Despite the request for them to take a hands-off approach with the student's Bartering Bonanza products, overall Honey Creek parents are extremely supportive of service-learning.

"Our principal sends out a survey every year, asking what was the most important factor when they chose Honey Creek Community School for their child," says Hofbauer.  "Their number one answer most of the time is the service-learning aspect."

Overall, this year's Bartering Bonanza was a success as Griffith's students collected two and a half truckloads of donations for the Delonis Center, including more than 1,100 hygiene items and more than 600 items of clothing.

Honey Creek is distributing its service-learning successes as Griffith has shared the Bartering Bonanza event at state and national Academic Service-Learning conferences.  He knows of at least two other teachers that have implemented it in their schools already.   Griffith says part of this success stems from the school's service-learning efforts and philosophy.

"I don't know if I ever would have been able to create a unit like this had it not been for Honey Creek," he says.  "We have had pretty well-supported academic service-learning - despite the fact we are no longer receiving grant funding.  We're still here and [service-learning] is still being integrated."