Southern Hills Career & Technical Center’s students focused on giving back to their community during the last two days originally scheduled as Spring Break. Even though outside temperatures were somewhat chilly, the spirit amongst students and staff was warming! Activities were planned to encompass learning goals of character education and community volunteerism in addition to enforcing technical skills. Thursday & Friday approximately 105 students served as volunteers for the following organizations:

• Mt. Orab Fire Dept: cleaning
• Mt. Orab Public Library: cleaning books and shelves
• Bentonville Child Care Center: helped with daily activities
• Veterans’ Home: digging trenches, Bingo, and other activities with the residents
• Brown County Recycling Center: sorting
• St. Vincent DePaul: sorting, packing, and organizing clothes
• Brown County Fairgrounds: cleaned out barns
• ABCAP Headstart- Georgetown and Greenbush locations: played with the preschoolers, manicures
• ABCAP: labels and envelopes
• Pregnancy Resource Center: cleaned and sorted
• Ohio Valley Manor: played Bingo, Wii, parachute, and other games with the residents
• Fayetteville Elementary School: Child ID cards
• Sardinia Elementary School: read to children, children read to us, and bulletin boards
• Fayetteville Family Child Care Center: Child ID cards

Mrs. Rebecca Varney, the Learn & Serve grant administrator, commented that the students at SHCTC gain the value of the importance of “community” and “giving” in addition to priceless career tech skills while attending the Career Center. She added, “The example that our teachers model by always diving right into these projects and working side by side our students speaks volumes; I cannot thank my colleagues enough for always making these outreach opportunities such a success.”

Mr. Tim Chadwell, principal, thanked Rebecca Varney, the Learn & Serve organizer for all the effort in orchestrating the school-wide event. He also added, “I can't help but think about all the people who benefitted because Southern Hills has said ‘Count on me!’ The exciting part for me was hearing our kids talking positive about the activities. It never fails that when we help lift someone up with a helping hand, we lift ourselves twice as high.”

This week’s lesson plans were made possible by the Learn and Serve America grant to integrate service learning, character education and career development into regular classroom teaching. Southern Hills Career & Technical Center is proud to be part of the Ohio Department of Education’s statewide service learning effort.

Picture Caption:
Kristine Reese and Brittany Barnes get involved in their community!