The Discovery School in Coupeville, Washington is a public school for kids who've had problems with school work and discipline. When one class at the school took on the Giraffe Heroes service-learning program, things really changed.

Intrigued by the stories of heroes they read about in the program, the kids asked themselves what issue they cared about. The choice was easy. A student had almost been hit by a car speeding past the school grounds, ignoring the speed limit to get to the nearby ferry landing.

The kids knew that this wasn't the only near-miss, and if something wasn't done, somebody was going to get seriously hurt. Making the streets around their school safe was their issue.

The students started off their project by videotaping speeding cars, clocking them, and graphing the results. Then they interviewed workers in the area about near-misses these people had seen.

With that data in hand, they asked a State trooper to confirm their findings with his radar gun. A county commissioner visited their school, saw the problem for himself, and then made a formal presentation to all the commissioners.

The result was a $12,000 traffic light, a crosswalk, and the admiration of everyone who witnessed what they'd accomplished. The students themselves experienced the satisfaction of service, the power of teamwork, and their own value as people who can get an important job done.