From left, 8th graders, Anderson Zuniga, Amuro Almazan and Paula Gurrola work together making chocolates to be delivered as valentine’s to students and staff at Aurora West Prep Academy, Feb. 13, 2020. Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado 
Melted chocolate and nuts are placed into molds, Feb. 13, 2020 at Aurora West Prep Academy. Special needs students made the chocolates and delivered them to students and school staff for Valentine’s Day. Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado 
ILC teacher Annette Green, right, and her student Anderson Zuniga level melted chocolate in a mold, Feb. 13, 2020, at Aurora West Prep Academy. Special needs students made the chocolates and delivered them to students and school staff for Valentine’s Day. Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado 
Paula Gurrola, left, hand delivers a valentine to a fellow student, Feb. 13, 2020 at Aurora West Prep Academy. Special needs students made chocolates and delivered them to students and school staff for Valentine’s Day. Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado
AURORA | ‘Tis the season for sweet treats and gestures, and a handful of students offered that in droves to their fellow classmates and school faculty, the day before Valentine’s Day.
Students with special needs from Aurora West Prep Academy made chocolate treats and hand delivered them across the school, Thursday.
The event is part of a new program at the school to teach business skills to the students with significant and profound needs. In addition to the business skills accrued, the students will also learn about food safety and customer service, as well as costs of products, how to budget their money and even how to cook.
“This is a life skill that they’re going to need their entire lives,” said Individual Learning Center teacher, Annette Green. Green works with students with significant and profound needs. These skills are aimed at contributing to these students being able to successfully live on their own, Green said.
In the three weeks it’s been in operation, the business program currently known as the Coffee Cart has made $514.75 in profit, which will be used toward future field trips for those in the program.
The students will then look at the total money earned and decide where they can afford to go. That includes doing the math to account for the bus ride, admission to wherever they decide to go and any other expenses that may be needed.
And trips are already planned — In March they will be going to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Denver Zoo is slated for April.
In addition to the chocolates they’ve sold during the Valentine’s Day season, the students have been selling coffee in the morning to students and staff before school starts.
“They are beloved here,” Green said. “We as a community wrap our arms around them and support them.”