Guests feast their eyes on walls covered in artwork. The musical tones of the orchestra caresses there eardrums as they bring a spoonful of hot soup to their lips.

The waiters are friendly and courteous. “Do you want coffee,” seconds, “more bread?”

What is this evening of culture costing them? Absolutely nothing. Superior Middle School held its third annual evening to treat all the senses Thursday.

Each year, the music, art and family and consumer education departments come together to provide an evening of artwork, music and free bread and soup dinner. Artwork ranged from pots and paintings to three dimensional structures.

All the artwork is based on the states model academic standards, but the students put their creativity into the work so each piece is different, said art teacher Andy Mork.

Work from all the school’s art classes-between 500 and 600 items- was displayed on walls and tables there Thursday afternoon. Each student chose on or two of their favorites.

Students whose work couldn’t be found on the walls could be found on the dinner table.

About 400 students in the family and consumer educations classes helped to make beef barley, chicken and vegetable soup, bread, banana bread and Dutch apple pie for the free community supper, said teacher Sunnie Nelson.

Their contribution is also based on the state’s academic standards for the subject.

While learning to cook the soup and bread, students learned how to make yeast rise about homelessness and hot make a meal on a budget, Nelson said. The banana bread was fun because ingredients kept splattering everywhere, said sixth grader Maria Drolson. “I think it’s a lot of fun,” she said.

Making soup is a lot of hard work, but it’s fun, said sixth grader Taylor Johnson.

The sixth grade classes made banana bread while the eighth grade classes did most of the heavy lifting. They chopped vegetables using food processors and made the soup and white bread. The family and consumer education clubs helped make the meal also, Nelson said.

Heavy lifting it was, as the students made about 30 gallons of soup and 40 loaves of bread.

The meal is offered free through a Murphy Oil Corp. grant. Guests to the art show and dinner have never finished all the food, but non of it is wasted. Leftover soup and break are donated to the Harbor House.

“Even if we serve a small amount, that doesn’t matter because the students know were going to give to the Harbor House,” Nelson said. “We want to give back to the community.”

Usually, there is one large pot remaining for donation, along with some bread. Students also collect non-perishable food for Harbor House.

The servers for the night are non other than the same family and consumer education students who helped make the food. Each server volunteered to serve up the meal. Besides serving the food, students also had to help clean up after the meal.

“(It’s a) good cause,” Johnson said. “We wanted to help people. We like to do things for other people.”

The Class Acts! trophy didn’t travel very far this month, but the $500 grant that goes with it will get kids traveling more on their own two feet.

The trophy crossed the hall at Northwestern Middle School to health teacher Nancy Homan’s room last week. Homan plans to use the grant to purchase classroom pedometers so students can take part in the 10,000 Steps Program. This is a fitness walking program that has a goal for each person to walk 10,000 steps a day.

“Today’s youth are considered to be the most inactive generation in history,” wrote Homan in her grant request.

“About 15.5 percent of adolescents are obese. I believe it is the role of the family, community and school to fight the war on obesity. We need to encourage and model healthy activities.”

She plans to have the students chart their progress on graphs as they work toward their 10,000 step goal, and plans to work right beside them.

“I can see this becoming so involved that parents would be challenging their children,” Homan wrote. “This could also promote other students in our school to get involved in a walking program and have friendly competition among classes/students.

“I believe that if we work together (school, family and community) we can help our youth to realize the importance of an active, healthy lifestyle. Obesity is the most preventable and avoidable cause of illness and death in the United States. With this grant I can take one small step to helping the students of our school become more aware of importance of being more active,” Homan wrote.

Murphy Oil U.S.A. Inc. and the Superior Daily Telegram launched the Class Acts! Douglas County Kids Making a Difference program this fall. It was designed to honor teachers and students striving to achieve excellence both inside and outside the classroom.

The Class Acts! program awards one $500 grant per month to a deserving project. Projects are judged by their creativity, educational impact and how large an audience can be reached.

“Anything a class needs that is educational, of service value to the community,” said Murphy Oil Refinery Manager Dave Podratz. “Something special.”

The last recipient of the award was Northwestern Middle School special education teacher Sue Enright. Her class used the money to purchase ingredients for a bake/craft sale to raise funds for the Kids in Nebagamon organization, which provides support for children in need.

The activity taught budgeting, reading and math skills. It also promoted community involvement.

Julia Blaisdell, physical education teacher at Bryant Elementary School, was the first recipient of the Class Acts! award. She used the $500 grant to purchase snowshoes of all sizes for the students to use.

For more information or to submit a grant request, look up Class Acts! online at www.classacts.info/ or call Murphy Oil at (715) 398-8212.

Murphy Oil in Superior recently gave Class Acts! awards to two area schools. Solon Springs is the March winner and Cathedral School is the April winner.

Solon Springs was given money to purchase tone chimes for the school choir. The popular program had $1000 per year cut from funding and was unable to buy updated equipment to accompany its singers. The choir competes in stage competition and has performed at Disneyworld. The tone chimes will be used to enhance songs at concerts.

Cathedral School requested assistance in purchasing materials for safety education for elementary and middle school students. The school asked for the program "Child Lures Prevention," consisting of a videotape series and parent/student handbooks to reinforce safety skills.

Bryant Elementary School students will have a capital time in the state capitol, thanks to a Class Acts! grant.

Bryant fourth-grade teachers Amy Patel, Robin Osell and Suzy Hurin are the most recent winners of the $500 Class Acts! grant, sponsored by Murphy Oil USA, Inc. and The Daily Telegram.

All three of their classes at are planning a field trip to Madison, Wisconsin to tour our state capitol

“The focus of Wisconsin’s fourth grade social studies standards is Wisconsin,” wrote the teachers in their grant application. “Living this far north, very few students have been to or seen Wisconsin’s capitol. In the classroom, we look at pictures of Madison and our capitol, but the power comes in the actual viewing of the building.”

The teachers got in touch with Linda Kleinschmidt, secretary to Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar. She helped the classes find lodging and organized a tour of the capitol and perhaps the Wisconsin Historical Society for them. Due to the distance, however, the trip requires an over night stay.

“The cost of bussing, lodging, food and miscellaneous expenses has surpassed what we ever imagined,” the teachers wrote.

“Families have begun fundraising for this trip; however, we are looking for outside financial support to alleviate the burden on families.

We are excited to show our students the actual building where our representatives work and to inspire in them both a passion and a curiosity in government and our capitol building and city.”

The dates for the trip are June 1-2. These dates were chosen because Legislature will be in session and Senator Jauch will be available to meet with the class. They are also hoping for the First Lady of Wisconsin to meet with them and read them a story.

Class Acts! grants are awarded each month to classes striving to achieve excellence both inside and outside the classroom.

Previous winners include Bryant physical education teacher Julia Blaisdell, who purchased snowshoes with the grant; Northwestern Middle School special education teacher Sue Emight, whose class used the money to hold a bake sale to raise money for local children and Superior Middle School health teacher Nancy Homan, who used the grant money to purchase pedometers for the class so they could take part in the 10,000 steps program.

For more information on Class Acts! or to submit a grant request, look up Class Acts! online at www.classacts.info/ or call Murphy Oil at (715) 398-8212.

The Class Acts! award traveled to Northwestern Middle School this month to highlight a community service project in Sue Enright’s special education class.

“Community service is something that sometimes needs to be taught to kids,” wrote Enright in her grant application. “it is something I hope they will learn to make a regular part of their lives.”

She and her students plan to use the $500 grant money that came with the award to help less fortunate children through the Kids in Nebagamon organization.

The class plans to grocery shop to buy supplies for a bake or craft sale to benefit KIN. In a sense, the students would grow the money into a larger donation.

It is also a learning opportunity. The students plan to use classroom knowledge to figure out best buys and use of coupons. Math and reading skills would be used to follow recipes and directions.

The money raised will go toward Christmas presents for children. Once again, the students will use their smart shopping skills to stretch their dollars.

Class Acts! is a monthly award sponsored by Murphy Oil USA, Inc. and the Superior Daily Telegram to be used for creative projects that make a difference. All schools in Douglas County are eligible for the award.

For more information on Class Acts! contact Murphy Oil at (715) 398-8212 or look them up on the Web at www.classacts.irifo/program.html.

Julia Blaisdell got two thumbs up from her students Thursday. The kids included a few cheers and a round of applause for good measure. Later, as they filed out of the gymnasium, fourth-grader Ryan Van Puymbrouck stopped to admire his physical education teacher’s new trophy and a larger-than-life check for $500.

Blaisdeil was chosen to be the first recipient of a new Class Acts! Douglas County students Making a World of Difference award sponsored by Murphy Oil U.S.A., Inc. and The Superior Daily Telegram. The program was designed to honor teachers and students striving to achieve excellence both inside and outside the classroom.

“Because budgets are tight,” said Murphy Oil Refinery Manager Dave Podratz, “it’s nice to do something special for the kids.”

For Bryant students, the award will mean more class time outdoors this winter. Blaisdell plans to purchase snowshoes for the children with the grant money.

The Class Acts! program will award one $500 grant per month to a deserving project. Projects are judged by their creativity, educational impact and how large an audience can be reached.

“Anything a class needs that is educational, of service value to the community,” said Podratz.

“Something special.”

To date, the Class Acts! program has received 20 nominations for the award.

In addition to the award, the Superior Daily Telegram will highlight the winning class each month and track the development of their projects. Students are also invited to submit articles, updates and photos related to their project to the Superior Daily Telegram. The winning students will also get to display the traveling Class Acts! trophy in their classroom for a month.

For more information or to nominate a teacher for the award, look up Class Acts! online at www.classacts.info/ or call Murphy Oil at (715) 398-8212.