Student-run small business provides opportunity for Chartiers Valley life skills students
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This season, you can send your loved one a greeting card that has a touch of charm from life skills students at Chartiers Valley High School.
Life skills teacher Buffie Faes, paraprofessional Rita Kierski and her high school life skills students have rebooted their greeting card store, just in time for the holidays.
Faes said that making and selling greeting cards teaches students math, English, vocational skills, financial literacy and independence. The class, for students with intellectual disabilities, often goes out into the community where students learn how to order food, shop at a grocery store and learn to budget, Faes said.
“I teach all the skills needed to be independent,” she said.
Just over a dozen years ago, Faes and her students started making holiday cards to raise money for trips into the community. Students make the cards, sell them on an online store, and use the proceeds as an educational component to pay for trips out in the community.
Faes said the student-run small business sells about 1,000 cards each school year. They’ve since expanded from just holiday cards to all greeting cards.
“They make the product and then we sell it, and then they can have the experiences that they choose,” she said.
About eight life skills students this year are participating in making and selling the greeting cards.
Students color templates; learn to package matching cards and envelopes; sort, organize and manage money; learn about profit, loss and budget, she said.
“This has become a job,” Faes said, “but they enjoy it.”
They’ve recently attended the Handmade Arcade Holiday Market at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh. Faes said she has received card orders from Bridgeville and beyond.
To order cards, visit edcorps.org/shop/specially-for-you-cards or email Faes at bfaes@cvsd.net.
Faes said many life skills programs have similar job-readiness activities, such as snack carts. For Chartiers Valley, she said, the greeting card store has been a success for years.
“Student stores seem to be the best way to show our students the best way to do a business from start to finish,” Faes said.