PG gives students a chance to give back
It was a short conversation.
Kara Lambert was walking in the door to the Randy Sams Shelter when a woman was walking out. When Lambert smiled at her, the woman stopped and began talking.
It was a short conversation, but it was one that changed her perceptions.
Lambert was working with Student Council at Pleasant Grove’s annual schoolwide community service day, Hawk Serve Day, one of 13 service projects that were being completed throughout the community.
“This woman asked me about college—she wanted to make sure I was going,” Lambert said. “She told me to work hard and stay focused. She didn’t feel sorry for herself, and I admired that about her. I just wanted to sit down and talk to her for hours.”
After that, Lambert knew she wanted to keep volunteering in her community—something she says she wouldn’t have understood without Pleasant Grove’s service opportunities.
And that’s the reason teachers at Pleasant Grove give students the chance to give back.
“We try to get kids to see what it’s like, and understand what it’s like, and feel what it’s like to step out of their comfort zone just for a moment,” Interact Club sponsor Marion Houff said. “Students need to see life from someone else’s eyes so they can be a more understanding and tolerant person.”
To help them become that person, Student Council sponsor Tiffany Beck contacted Harvest Texarkana, the regional food bank. Over 160 service hours later, the Leadership Class still goes to Harvest Texarkana’s warehouse every Wednesday to box up food bags for their Backpack Program. These bags are shipped to schools so children across the Texarkana area will have something to eat over the weekend.
“Some kids think we’re immune to need here and don’t realize others in their community are in need of a basic necessity like food,” Beck said. “I’m definitely planning on continuing this next year. Learning to serve others betters not only the community, but the student as a whole. It teaches them important lessons in empathy, problem solving, and life outside their school.”
It’s these lessons Pleasant Grove teachers strive to teach their students.
For students in Science Club, it’s working in the Texarkana Public Library during Hawk Serve Day, filling over 60 shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child, and helping load shoe boxes from the area into trucks to ship overseas.
For Interact Club, it’s packing dental kits to send to Guatemala, putting on a picnic for Opportunities, Inc. residents, and placing American flags in the community on every national holiday.
For Student Council, it’s not only volunteering through Harvest Texarkana, but participating in the Special Olympics, donating 1,000 cans of food through their Hunger Games Project, and packing Blessing Bags for the homeless.
And it’s not just these organizations in the school that put a priority on community outreach.
In the fall, Keyettes collected socks for the homeless during “Sock-tober,” and in the spring they spent an afternoon picnicking with girls at Watersprings Ranch. The HOSA (Health Occupation Students of America) organization held four blood drives. In their most recent blood drive, they broke the school record with 95 units donated, units that will benefit over 215 people.
“The most important thing about blood drives is that students are saving lives,” HOSA sponsor Virginia Parker said. “Blood drives are literally giving of yourself in the most personal sense.”
Pleasant Grove teachers are helping students do just that, learning to give of themselves and to the community that raised them.
Seeing all these students come together to make an impact on their community is what senior Chelsea Cole finds so cool.
“Seeing students sacrifice their time for people and not expect anything in return is extraordinary,” Cole said. “It makes me proud of my school.”