Freshman Academy has been busy the months of November and December between the Travis Bachman Stocking Drive, a large scale service project, and a blanket and coat drive.
During November, Student Council encouraged academies to donate to the Travis Bachman Stocking Drive. Freshman Academy teachers encouraged their students and pitched in themselves to donate over 2000 items to the Stocking Drive, which won them the Academy Cup, a prized cup sought after by each academy.
This year Freshman Academy decided to take on a large scale service project to give all freshmen the opportunity to serve. This project fired up shortly after the student council Stocking Drive came to a close. It was made possible with partnership with Trade and Health Academy teacher, Paul Lappin. He provided Freshman Academy with an opportunity to raise funds for the project. Students from Freshman Academy went to his class and worked side by side his students to wrap breakfast burritos. The burritos were then sold the next day and the funds were then used to go purchase the materials for the project.
The plan for the project was for all freshmen to be involved in making blankets for the Western Kansas Child Advocacy Center and the Cancer Center. Then we would also gather donations to contribute with those items as well as work with Robyn Hilt, from Arts and Communications to make port covers for the Cancer Center.
November 20th, the project was underway. Students came in shifts during 5th hour on Monday and Tuesday to make blankets. We had students from student council as well as a community volunteer help prepare blankets for students to complete.
Once the blankets were completed, we were ready to gather more donations. An incentive was given to teachers. If they donated an item they would be given a chance to win Buffalo Ball tickets. The academy was able to get a few donations from that promotion and also had a donor provide some funds to purchase extra donations.
In addition to the service project, Mrs. Meng, the freshman Academy counselor, was promoting a blanket and coat drive. She communicated with parents and students about the drive. Several donations were dropped off during the month of December.
In December, the port covers were made. Robyn Hilt worked with a few of her classes to prepare materials and make some sample port covers to show students. Then On December 18, a small group of students gave up some of their time after school to make the port covers.
Finally on December 20, we were ready to deliver. Several students were chosen to help deliver the donations. The first stop was the Western Kansas Child Advocacy Center. There students dropped off donations and were given a tour of the facility. Students were able to find out about the organization and how they help children in Garden City.
The next stop was the Heartland Cancer Center.
Finally, the last stop was The Clarion Inn, a drop off location for the Family Crisis Center. There Freshman Academy students dropped off the donations from the blanket and coat drive.
Freshman Academy stayed busy the month of November and December and hopefully freshman learned a little about giving. Freshman Academy staff can’t be more proud of our students who contributed and participated in all of these service opportunities.
Garden City High School 