Young teens find school and community service projects a “cool” pastime

It is much better to give than to receive Maricopa eighth graders say. Last month’s canned food drive proved that their actions speak just as loudly as their words.

Maricopa Wells Middle School Principal Stephanie Sharp and middle school math teacher Shannon Hull helped conduct a canned food drive with the school’s mixed grade leadership class and eighth grade student council. It was the first of its kind at the school, and students in Hull’s leadership class stepped up to the challenge, collecting over 1,100 food items from classmates in only two weeks. The canned goods were donated to the Nazarene Church in Maricopa and the Maricopa Food Bank.

“We spent a couple of days wrapping boxes and making posters,” Hull explained, indicating the brightly wrapped boxes invading her small classroom. Her students collected them from each fourth period class on August 31; each was chock-full with foodstuffs. “That was like our life for three days,” added Hull.

Students involved in the drive found the community service project “cool” and “fun.” They presented boxes to classmates and attached flyers, explaining their efforts, to doors and walls. They offered a pizza and root beer float party, sponsored by student council, to the class with the most donations.

“We are very excited for having the chance to give back to our community, and the students feel that it is important to do local charitable work,” Hull said. “The members of our student council have told me that they feel that they worked even harder knowing that the food will stay in Maricopa, and that it’s cool that they may even help feed some of their classmates.”

Eighth grade student council members show off the results of their school-wide canned food drive at Maricopa Wells Middle School. From left: Class Secretary Tyler Owings, Treasurer Chelsey Parman, Vice-President A.J. Beltran and Class President K.J. Diehl.

The leadership class students, 42 in all, collected non-perishable food items such as canned goods (like tuna or canned fruit), boxed dinners (Hamburger Helper), rice, sugar, flour, peanut butter, soup, cake mixes and bottled water – and even a jar of artichoke hearts.

“There’s some good stuff in there, that’s for sure!” Hull exclaimed. “This class, specifically just this class, brought more than almost everybody. We combined everybody’s together, and we probably equaled out. If the other classes brought 350 total, we came close.”

But that’s not all the class and student council has up its sleeve. Students are discussing a clothes drive to benefit classmates who can’t afford gym clothes. They’ve also formulated a 48-member “House of
Representatives,” composed of one nominated student from each homeroom, for a more inclusive school governing body.

Want to help support the school’s fundraising efforts? Purchase a 50-cent bag of popcorn at any of the Panther middle school sporting events, another new promotion this year. These students love what they do and enjoy giving back, whether to the community or just their school.

“I came to this class because I knew it would be fun, and I like Ms. Hull,” eighth grader Tyler Owings explained. “I wanted to be involved in buying uniforms and stuff for our sports this year because last year we played all the sports, and we really didn’t have a lot. So I’ll probably stay in student council next year in high school, if what I do can make a difference.”