Reverse Charity Week to bring fun, service
Students at the three L’Anse Creuse high schools are ramping up fun in their days while simultaneously easing pandemic pains in the community.
“Our focus this year is in giving back to the community,” L’Anse Creuse High School North teacher and student council advisor Rosa Hough said. “By encouraging people to support local and donate items to those in need, it is still fostering a sense of community and giving back.”
It’s no secret the pandemic has created schoolrelated stresses, particularly for high school students. Students from three L’Anse Creuse Public Schools high schools selected to band together this year for a Reverse Charity Week, not only helping different community causes but offering students some fun in the process.
“In regards to COVID-19, we reached out to the other buildings and we all agreed that we should do a combined Charity Week, where we focus on giving back to the community,” Hough said.
L’Anse Creuse High School (LCHS) is located in Harrison Township, L’Anse Creuse High School North (LCHSN) in Macomb Township and the Frederick V. Pankow Center in Clinton Township. Pankow includes students in a specific Math, Science and Technology program (MST).
“This is the fourth year for Charity Week at LCN and the current senior class deserves to keep the tradition alive, despite missing out on so many other aspects of their senior year,” Hough said.
Reverse Charity Week will be held March 6-12. The following week, students will be able to view a reveal video and learn how much they have given back to the community, Hough said. LCHS staff member and student council advisor Barbara Witkowski said that one group students want to show appreciation for during the week is essential workers.
“In addition to supporting some of our favorite restaurants, we also want to honor the services provided by our essential workers during the pandemic,” Witkowski said. “Classes will be engaging in a variety of activities from providing meals to offering other creative expressions of gratitude to these heroes.”
Students from all three schools presented information about Reverse Charity Week to the L’Anse Creuse Public Schools Board of Education during a Feb. 22 electronically held meeting. Christina Trotta was one of the student speakers, and represented LCN’s student council during the meeting. She explained to the board that students wanted to give back to the community during the pandemic.
“We are calling this week, instead of our normal Charity Week, we are calling it Reverse Charity Week since we are giving it back to our local community and restaurants,” Trotta said.
Students told the board that Reverse Charity Week will include the following activities:
• Spirit Week: Monday’s dress activity will encourage students from one school to wear the school colors of the other, in a show of unity and support for each other. Tuesday’s dress activity encourages students and staff to wear a shirt representing a school they formerly attended, such as their old elementary, middle or high school. Wednesday’s dress activity encourages students and staff to wear shirts from charitable events or a brand that gives back to charity. Thursday’s dress activity encourages wearing business casual or formal clothes. Friday’s dress activity encourages wearing a shirt specifically designed for Reverse Charity Week or wearing all black, which is the color of the Reverse Charity Week shirts.
• Teacher incentives: Teachers will create incentives to encourage students to participate in Reverse Charity Week. In the past some incentives offered by teachers have included dying their hair or beards or getting taped to the wall. Students will be able to see the results of incentives during the reveal video, Hough said.
• Restaurant nights: To support specific restaurants scattered across the school district boundaries during Reverse Charity Week, students and their families are encouraged to order food from one of these restaurants. Each participating restaurant will have a receipt box, and receipts deposited by the end of Reverse Charity Week will be totaled up to allow students to see the impact they have had on assisting the restaurants. • Pet Wars: Staff at the high schools seek votes for their pets from students through a competition. This year LCHS and LCHSN will select its school’s cutest pet, then the pets will compete in a district-wide competition to earn the title Cutest L’Anse Creuse Public Schools District Pet. Hough said that from the small monetary amount that each staff member contributes, each building winner will be able to donate to a local charity.
• Stuff-A-Bus: District buses will be parked at high schools during Reverse Charity Week. Students are encouraged to donate food items to benefit Macomb Community Action’s food program. Witkowski said that items will also be collected for All About Animals Rescue. Students told the board that their fellow students could also potentially earn community serve hours for donating.
Community service hours are required for graduation in the district. LCHSN Community Service Coordinator Carolyn Hosler said that due to the pandemic, there have been fewer opportunities for students to perform community service in the community. Therefore the number of community service credit hours required to graduate has been shortened this year to 25 total hours, Hosler said.
Outside of Reverse Charity Week, LCHSN students have additional ways of helping the community while earning community service hours by participating in the Jeans for Teens drive. This year marks the eighth year for the drive, according to Hosler. This school year’s Jeans for Teens drive began Feb. 25 and will be offered for about two weeks. The drive offers students the opportunity to earn community service credits for donating new or gently worn jeans. LCHSN students are encouraged to donate boys and girls jeans in all different sizes for people in their own age group.
Students make donations by putting the jeans and slips of paper with their name included in a bag, then dropping the bag off at a marked cart outside of the community service office of LCHSN. Including their name with the donation ensures that the students receive credit in the form of community service hours for their donation. Hosler said that one pair of jeans donated equates to one hour of community service credits to the donor student.
“Every morning when I come in, I gather the bags dropped off and I do the accounting,” Hosler said.
Students can earn a maximum of two hours of community service through the Jeans for Teens drive, Hosler confirmed. Jeans donated will benefit Macomb Foster Closet in Mount Clemens, Family Youth Interventions of Macomb in Mount Clemens and a church outreach called Macomb Teen Ministries.