March 18, 2016
Henderson Collegiate’s high school may be new, but students are already giving back.
Nearly 100 freshmen at the school this week participated in the inaugural community service day, spreading their time and energy helping out individuals and nonprofits throughout Vance County.
High school counselor Laura Bradley told Dispatch reporter Jamica Whitaker that the purpose of the event was to instill in students the desire to look at where they live and seek solutions to the issues they see.
“We want our students to make their community a better place,” she said. “It’s their responsibility to take care of their community and help it grow.”
And the students seemed to take that to heart. They got to choose where to spend their time and energy in areas that touched so many parts of the community: reading at Carver or Pinkston Street elementary schools, preparing and serving lunch at ACTS, building ramps for people’s homes with Rebuilding Hope or sorting donations at Lifeline Outreach.
This partnership was beneficial for the community, for the students and for the organizations that were helped. Students got to reach out and see just how much impact they can have — and how much good they can do. It also shows them that there are people who need help right here at home and that there are those who seek to make the community better. Students at Henderson Collegiate got to be a part of that good.
So often, people bemoan problems without providing potential solutions or say that the youth today have no desire to help others.
Henderson Collegiate students, faculty and staff are proving that isn’t true by offering up their time and their hard work — and it’s not a one-time thing. Principal Jackson Olsen said this service to others is something they’re weaving into the fabric of the school community.
“One of our values as a school is service and community,” he said. “We knew that when we started the high school that we wanted to start a new tradition that gets our students out in the community. This is our beliefs in action today.”
