CMSS Service Learning Students Helping Homeless & Community

Cabot Middle School South students are learning to make a difference in their community, one project at a time. It is all part of Service Learning and it takes place every morning during LEAD time, Learning, Enrichment, and Development.

Service Learning and Creative Writing classes are given the opportunity to choose a project or organization they would like to support. Recently, students decided they wanted to help the homeless. Through collection drives, donations, and caring community members, they were able to fill 100 bags with items including food, water, hygiene products, etc. Some special bags included gloves, socks, blankets, cough drops, and even hot hands. Students also wrote encouraging notes, one saying, “You Are Loved.”

All the bags were donated to the HELP organization, which stands for Housing Education and Life-Skills Program. HELP assists the homeless. Naomi Bratton is one of the founding members and says she was overwhelmed by the generosity of the students, staff, and community members who assisted in collecting and donating these much needed supplies. The students were able to fill her entire car, front to back with the donations. Many of the bags were immediately delivered to local law enforcement departments and community organizations that have close contact with the homeless and those in need.  

Helping the homeless is not the only group of people Service Learning students has impacted. They had a busy year of giving. Every few weeks, with the leadership and guidance of CMSS paraprofessionals Stephanie Edmondson, Myra Hernandez, and Teresa Gray, students have provided stuffed animals for first responders, care packages for nursing home residents, hygiene kits, blankets, and Valentine's for Arkansas Children's Hospital, personal items to Safe Haven Women's Shelter, stocked three stand-alone food pantries every month in Cabot and Austin, and the list goes on and on. In fact, students are currently preparing military care packages to send to bases in Kuwait, Afghanistan, Japan, and Africa where family members of students are deployed. 

Ms. Gray, Ms. Edmondson, and Ms. Hernandez say each project is literally a lesson. They incorporate creative writing, technology skills, and of course, the biggest lesson of all is giving back. Ms. Gray says her motto is, “An open hand with a giving heart,” and these students and teachers are shining examples of true service.

CMSS Serving Learning Students Helping the Homeless

CMSS Service Learning Students Helping the Community