BY KARISSA MILLER

At Lakeshore Elementary School, every student has the potential to come up with big ideas.

On Wednesday, the pirate happy meal lunch — inspired by fifth-grader Logan Moeller — made its debut at LES.

“The idea popped into my head one day” on how to make lunch fun for every student at the school, Logan explained.

“The pirate is the mascot of the school. I wanted to keep it on theme for the school,” he said. “I wanted to make it like McDonald’s, but was thinking of a main meal, a side and a drink. I didn’t think about a toy because I didn’t think it was in the budget.”

Logan’s initial design included a box that resembled the McDonald’s Happy Meal box with school colors and a pirate on front with handles. However, the final product was a brown pirate treasure box with handles — complete with a toy.

“It’s small, portable and easy to carry and make kids happy,” he said. “I love it completely.”

The meals consisted of hamburgers or cheeseburgers, a side of fruit and a drink — and either a slinky or a sticky hand toy.

In honor of this special day, Prime Time teacher Lynn Koger dressed up as “Petey,” the pirate mascot, and greeted students in the lunchroom.

At 12:30 p.m, third-graders in teacher Leslie Cole’s class expressed their approval of the happy meal with an assortment of oohs and aahs.

“I got the cheeseburger. It’s really good and I also got this, which is really cool,” student Mia Daykhovsky said while holding up her sticky hand toy.

Arteen Adljouyi pulled out a slinky toy from his box. He was happy with the toy he received and said he liked the color.

Logan, 11, said he’s proud of what he’s accomplished and said it’s important to not give up.

His favorite subjects are math and reading. He likes to play video games and has also played football. When he grows up, he wants to be an astronaut or work in the food and service industry.

Entrepreneurship Project

The project first began in the Prime Time after-school program, where Logan was challenged to brainstorm and develop a business ideas focused on making a positive impact.

Koger, his Prime Time teacher, who also works on the school nutrition team, helped him determine what items needed to be included to meet the required nutritional guidelines. LES administration partnered with school nutrition department to purchase the pirate happy meal boxes.

“He thought of something that would be good for the students. He thought it through, with some guidance, and went to the correct people to see it come to fruition,” Koger said.

“It was a really happy day for me when it was approved,” he recalled.

Prime Time Director Jill Wingler came to the school Wednesday to congratulate Logan.

“Keep up the good work and ideas. You have created something wonderful,” she said.

“I think one of our jobs as educators is to listen to kids. It is something that sometimes gets overlooked. As a STEM school, one of our jobs is to inspire kids beyond school. This is a passion of his and it was easy to say ‘yes,’ ” said Principal Chris Grace.

Grace said that Lakeshore’s teachers and staff are the driving force behind their school’s success.

“It makes me proud the relationships our teachers and staff have with our kids. Lynn only sees him for a couple of hours after school, but if he wouldn’t have felt comfortable with her this year and last year, he wouldn’t have shared his idea with her,” Grace said.

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