Volunteer student group expands focus, starts selling lunches

A high school organization founded by students several years ago aimed at inclusivity and students helping each other has expanded its focus, and its store in the school's commons area is selling an assortment of sandwiches, beverages and other snacks during lunchtime.

BASE, founded by a group of Wrangell High School students in 2019, has grown over the years from decorating the halls to providing needed food to students, arranging teacher appreciations, working with school staff to learn how to write grants to help fund the BASE food store, and even securing money to make microloans.

The name originally stood for Building a Supportive Environment. Mikki Angerman, special education teacher for the middle and high school, assumed responsibility for the group this school year and is revamping it, changing the name so that BASE now stands for Building Acceptance and Support for Everyone. "I just tweaked it a little bit to be more inclusive," she said.

When Angerman took over, it included just her own students but quickly expanded. "It blew up," she said. "Kids said, 'Hey, I want to be a part of it.'"

She said all the students are volunteers. "I have mostly middle schoolers and a handful of high schoolers, so it is a mixed group. It's very diverse. We've got athletes. We've got some of the more tech kids. We've got some with disabilities, some without."

Angerman arranged to have some of her students join other BASE members behind the counter at the snack bar to provide them with work experience and social interaction. Paraprofessionals Christina Good and Kathleen Easterly assist in guiding the students as they perform various duties in the store. "The goal is to show that everyone has value," she said. "Lunches have been that outlet to get us started."

Although the store began several years ago selling breakfast food, it hasn't been open for breakfast so far this school year but was going to give it a trial return this week.

Angerman added that inclusion can often be something her students struggle with. "We have a lot of our student population that are not educated on differences, and it can be a target for bullying or exclusion," she said.

"We do allow all students to join but special education does have a central part. We are promoting inclusion and support for all. We will be offering education and resources on various things such as neurodiversity, specific disabilities, mental and physical health (and) bullying."

As April is Autism Awareness Month, Angerman has been taking the opportunity to address students about autism briefly every day in the commons area at lunchtime. On April 11, she talked about the meaning of the word "autism," having heard it used in a derogatory fashion at school.

"I've just been really disheartened to hear that word thrown around as maybe a jokey word to your friends or maybe to put somebody else down, and I hope that we can change that," she said to those present. "People in our school actually do struggle with autism, adults and children, and so when you're throwing that word around and they're hearing it or your friends are hearing it, that is hurtful."

In an interview after her talk with students, Angerman said incidents of bullying or name-calling have happened more often than she would like. "I do think that it's just lack of education, lack of knowledge about it, so I'm hoping through this (public discussion), that we can help with that."

She also wants to address other issues through BASE, such as depression or grief. "It can be just any challenges that these kids are going to experience outside of reading, writing, math. Challenges that they have in life."

Angerman wants to use the money raised from the store to further educate on inclusion and awareness, in addition to providing a small scholarship for someone each year. While the store currently only sells food, she hopes to expand the selection in the future. "I'm hoping that it can grow," she said. "I really do want it to be more student-led."