On Nov 17, Olathe West held the first full day of service, “Give a Hoot Day,” which differed from the regular Give a Hoot projects each advisory class would participate in individually.
The new plan was to offer up a variety of different service project options, ranging from ones located at the school and others at different areas for the entire school to engage in throughout the day. In the past, A.I. classes would just pick one project per class, but the new method created by math teacher Tyler Rodden and coach Kayla Barnes allowed students to choose their own service projects outside of their A.I.’s choice.
Opportunities like a canned food drive, Special Olympics, visiting elementary schools, a walk-a-thon for the homeless, a polar plunge, fixing bikes, spending time with the CBR program and making blankets and cards for the community were offered to students to participate.
“Today we’re helping the community by just giving all the kids around the Olathe school district with special needs a chance to feel included and feel involved,” said junior Lizzie O’Dwyer, one of the students participating in the Special Olympics activity. “Instead of being with an adult and with a para for the whole day, they’re gonna be with kids their own age and peers and they’re just gonna feel more welcomed and included in their like, school environment. Just to have a fun day overall really.”
Teachers participated in the projects as well, being in charge of groups and overseeing the community service.
“Without community service, I probably wouldn’t have gone to college,” biology teacher Janelle Craig said. “I probably wouldn’t have been able to do the things that I was blessed to do in life because people were giving back to the community. People felt like someone had done good for them and they wanted to go back and do good as well.”
The day went as planned, sending students out into the community to help others and learn about the value of community service in a way that would allow them to truly get involved and be able to have hands-on experience.
“I think is a great experience to show students that there’s a lot of opportunities and a lot of ways that they can help and serve,” counselor Darianne Hicks said. “And if they don’t know those opportunities, hopefully doing things like this can show them where the different opportunities are just right here within our community.”
Below is a photo slideshow of students participating in projects.
