Kerry Fizer

Mackie Bellomy and Chloe Thompson worked together to clean and organize the band room. They chose to do this because the band room is very rarely cleaned. There was paper, playing cards, empty bags of chips, water bottles, and dirt all over the floor. They started by stacking all of the chairs and music stands, then sweeping the floor. They wiped down the tables in the front of the room and picked up the percussion section. After cleaning the main room, they tidied up the sink room and the instrument room. Lastly, they went through and filed some musical pieces into their correct spots. They completed their goal of deep cleaning the band room, and they hope that the band students appreciated it. They believe that Mr. Chaffins was very glad to have someone finally tidy up there.

Diana Buxo and London Coffey's National Honor Society service project was to volunteer at a nursing home because many elderly residents do not get many visitors and can feel lonely outside of the holidays. They wanted to spend time with them and give them something fun to look forward to while showing them that people in the community care about them. To help fund the project, they created a GoFundMe and raised money to pay for supplies, activities, prizes, and gift bags for the residents. As part of the project, Diana and London assembled 44 gift bags, 24 for women and 20 for men. Each bag included drinks, chocolates, and snacks, while the women’s bags also contained socks, perfume, lotion, and nail polish, and the men’s bags included socks, shaving cream, and playing cards. Every bag also included a handmade card to add a personal touch. They visited the nursing home on three different days and planned activities including making suncatchers, decorating cookies, and making ice cream sundaes while playing bingo, along with prize baskets for the winners. Through these visits and activities, they were able to spend meaningful time with the residents, bring them comfort, and brighten their days, which was the main goal of my project.

Madelyn Calderon decided to make Christmas cards for two graduates of Chesapeake High School, Ethan Kerns and Mikey Rose, who have chosen to serve for our country. Madelyn made these cards along with many other students. She gave these cards to siblings and family members of theirs so they could receive them on time when they got home. They designed these cards with thoughtful messages, which some were personalized, to make them meaningful and uplifting. She chose this project because those boys have been such a light to our school, and we always want them to know that we appreciate them and thank them for their service. She did this project hoping to accomplish making them not feel alone and know there are always people at home who care about them deeply. This project helped prove that to these two boys. She felt proud knowing this small act of service made a difference for these boys. All goals were met, and both boys were very appreciative of the cards and felt pride from their hometown community. This project overall met the goal of showing gratitude and spreading positivity always. 

Micah Lowe organized a toy drive for the Community Mission Outreach (CMO) in Chesapeake. They posted a request for toys specifically for teens on Facebook because they give out toys during their Christmas Day of CMO. They give out these toys for people who may not be able to afford presents for their family for Christmas. She chose to run a toy drive because she believes that every kid deserves presents on Christmas, even if they’re a year old or seventeen years old, and CMO gives them the opportunity to receive presents. The hope was to get around a hundred toys collectively with my three boxes. There were donation boxes in the high school, the middle school, and People’s Bank in Proctorville. On the day it was turned in, there were about 20 toys that were donated because there weren’t many donations in the boxes, only monetary donations were made. The volunteers from CMO were very thankful for the donations despite there not being many. If it were known that the donations were needed earlier, there might have been more toys.  The people who benefited from this are the kids and teens who received the toys for Christmas. 

Alexis Adkins collected goods for a local nursing home as her personal service project. She set up a box at the buddy league basketball games and collected things for the residents at the nursing home her mom works at. She received many blankets, socks, books, puzzles, and other things they would like. The goal of her project was to collect things for the residents so they could have presents for the holidays. The drive went well and went on from November 15th- December 13th and after she gathered the items, she wrapped and passed the gifts out to the residents. 

This year, Rolan Aragon chose to gather items from all Chesapeake schools and donate items to the homeless shelter with the help of Jamie Shields. He chose to do this project because he believes that no one should be living without the basic necessities and these basic necessities can make a meaningful difference in someone's life. He hoped to spread this kindness to others in our community, starting from each Chesapeake school by encouraging kids to help others even if it is just a small act of kindness like donating some old clothes, food, and hygienic items, can have a big impact. To organize this project, he placed boxes for students in Chesapeake schools to donate listed items, and his family supported the project by purchasing items also to donate. After collecting the three boxes from the schools, there was a lot to carry to Jamie Shields' car so she could take it to the homeless shelter. Overall, the outcome of this project exceeded his expectations. Thanks to the generosity of Chesapeake students and other families, the shelter has received plenty of items to give to the homeless. He hopes that these donations will make someone's day and show them that the Chesapeake community cares for them as well. 

Something Addison Arthur and Abby Mitchell hate to see are cold, wet, homeless people on the streets. The girls never know how to help the homeless though, because they are just high school students. Doing the service project gave them a perfect opportunity to help the people on the streets who are in need. This is when the girls thought of Fuzzy February. The goal was to gather fuzzy donations throughout the month of February of fuzzy socks, hats, gloves, and scarves. They thought the outcome was great, and with the monetary donations they received  to buy things, they did that too. In the end, the donations went to the Huntington City Mission. The Mission was appreciative of what they had done. 

Savannah and her friend Abby undertook a charitable project, baking and donating 350 cookies to a local homeless shelter. They chose this shelter because they were aware of the shelter’s struggles and wanted to provide a snack for the residents. The primary goal was to offer a small act of kindness and provide comfort to those experiencing hardships. This project was executed successfully, with the friends working collaboratively to bake and package the cookies. Their efforts directly met the goal, providing a treat and bringing a smile to the faces of the shelter’s residents. Ultimately, their hard work benefited the residents of the shelter. They hope to encourage others to engage and take action in community service. 

The project that Owen Murray chose was to collect supplies and food for the local animal shelter, because he loves animals and the shelter is above capacity all of the time and they need help. Owen has volunteered to walk dogs and has collected supplies since he was little to help the shelter. Owen feels bad and has a passion for dogs and cats that don’t have homes. He hopes that the supplies that have been collected will help the animal shelter in some way with decreasing their costs. Maybe they can spend the money that would have been spent on supplies and food for something else the animals need. During the winter ice storm they did request volunteers take dogs home that were in outside kennels. It is very sad that they have to be kept outside in the weather when it is really cold and really hot. Owen feels that every donation helps, no matter the size. Although he hoped to collect more donations, he was able to take a small supply for dogs and cats to the shelter. Even after this project, Owen plans to continue helping the local animal shelters through volunteer work and donation of supplies.

Kendall Root updated her church’s business cards. She chose to continue this project from last year because the pastor and associate pastor told her how the cards were very useful, and that they were almost out. Her main goal for this project was to help and contribute to the growth of her church. To accomplish this task, she went on Canva and thought of an upgraded design from last year’s business cards. She reflected on them and fixed any errors she might’ve made last year. When she got approval on the design, the cards were printed and dropped off at Faith Baptist Chapel. The pastor and associate pastor were amazed at the cards and said they loved them! They were very grateful for the business cards, and it felt good to help out in the community.

 Gabrielle Kelley's personal service project was crocheting hearts for nursing home residents for Valentine’s Day. She chose crocheting hearts instead of traditional valentines because she hoped they would spark more joy. She wanted each resident to feel that someone had taken time to personally make something for them, especially since some residents in nursing homes don’t always get attention from people outside their care. Her goal was to make them happy and remind them that they are cared for. This project also reminded her of her grandma, whom she helped take care of for most of Gabriella's life. It made her think of the residents as her own grandparents and that they deserve happiness and kindness. To complete her project, she crocheted 100 hearts, even though there were only about 85 residents at the time. She packaged each heart in a small bag with a cardboard note that said pocket hug, and then grouped the bags in sets of twenty. The project met her goal when she received a picture of a woman’s mother holding one of Gabriella's hearts and smiling so genuinely, which made the whole thing feel great.

For Megan Lowe's personal service project, she collected non-perishable food items. She chose this project because Mrs. Fizer suggested it, and because she knew it was something that would make a difference in the lives of people who needed it. Her goal was simply to lessen the amount of food insecurity by even a little bit, and Megan believes she accomplished that. To complete this goal, she posted what her project was on Facebook and collected donations from those who were willing to help. In the end, she managed to donate around $400 worth of food, which is enough to fill the trunk of a small SUV. Those non-perishable food items will benefit even a few people who are food insecure. 

Lila Ferguson and Marlee Wright believe everyone should have access to a proper education, which is hard to come by, especially for those who may struggle financially. That is why they decided to restock the 'take what you need’ table in order to provide school supplies for those who may not be able to purchase supplies themselves. This table provides binders, folders, composition and spiral notebooks, line and graph paper, mechanical and wooden pencils, cap erasers, paper and binder clips, sticky notes, ballpoint pens, highlighters, and even some suckers for fun. All of these supplies were funded by donations from the community. They hope that this project can help students be better prepared, whether it is because they could not get a binder or they just lost their pencil. Classes can be difficult and stressful at times when a pencil or notebook is lacking. They hope that with accessible supplies, the stress on some students will be lessened. 

This year, Addison Glenn decided to pass out warm blankets to the homeless. Around this area, the winters can get pretty cold and downright dreadful if you don’t have some sort of warmth. She wanted to help people find some sort of comfort in this struggling season and maybe even warm their hearts. With this project, she hoped to achieve the homeless staying warm this winter and not having to depend on just their normal clothes/jackets. She wanted people to have hope that this winter would come to an end soon and that they just needed to hold onto their loved ones and blankets a little while longer. She made sure to give out as many blankets as she possibly could and for lots of people to have them. Even if some had to share, she's glad they would be used throughout the community. Benefiting the homeless has always been so heartwarming and special to Addison. She's never been homeless and hope she won’t ever have to, but she would do anything to help the ones who are. Everyone deserves love and warmth and a second chance. 

Mary Michel's service project was to collect as many supplies as she could to take to the Branches Domestic Violence Shelter. Her goal was to get enough stuff to fill four totes. In the end, she got four totes and a bag full of blankets. What it took to prepare to get the stuff was firstly seeing what they were low on. It is also taking the time to go shop for the stuff that I know people couldn’t bring into the school. 

The results of her project were amazing, because she got a little more than what she thought she would get. It was a success, because she got a lot of supplies to take to the shelter. It worked by posting the project on social media. It would have helped if she had sent out emails to the school, because she could have gotten more. Yes, she more than reached her goal, because she filled four totes completely, and had the bag of blankets. This will also help a lot of people in the shelter. 

  Olivia Watts collected non-perishable food around her neighborhood for three days as her service project. She chose this project because she wanted to help the Community Center feed people for Thanksgiving. She hoped to collect hundreds of cans and ended up collecting 480. She donated all of the proceeds to the Chesapeake Community Center. She knows that all of the food helped many people this past Thanksgiving. There were around 4 full totes in the back of her jeep that Charlie Newman helped to unload. 

This year for Laila Wentz's National Honor Society project, she decided to take some of her own lightly used books and place them in the book boxes at local parks. There are a lot of book boxes that are usually unfilled, and this project means something to her personally because when she was younger, looking in them was her favorite part about going to the park. She hopes that other kids will see them like she did, and enjoy going through the books to find ones they want to keep. Hopefully, it helps add creativity back into the younger generation, and benefits their boredom, and hopefully even their future. This project is usually hard to automatically determine the impact, however, this time, as she was placing the books, a young lady asked if she could have them since she and her kids love to read. That interaction genuinely made Laila feel so good about the project, because people do care about books.

Chesapeake High School was awarded a grant from the Lawrence County Community Foundation this winter to help enhance the aesthetics of the Village of Chesapeake. A group of Art 4 students, Erin Lowe, Erin Wood, and Clairynn Romans, were selected to serve on a committee working to help improve the visual appeal of the community. Those selected were eager to choose this personal service project because they could use their artistic abilities to enhance the beauty of Chesapeake. The project will be completed in several phases. Goals during the first phase include, designing and installing decorative banners, painting crosswalks, upgrading fencing, and creating large-scale signage for various buildings throughout the village. Each committee member was assigned specific responsibilities, such as researching materials, obtaining pricing, exploring installation options, and gathering the necessary information to help move the project forward. Once the research is complete, the findings and proposed plans will be presented at the Chesapeake City Council meeting on April 6. If the proposal is approved, installation of the banners, painting of the crosswalks, and assisting with other efforts to help beautify the Chesapeake community will begin.