Grayson County Middle School students participated in several community projects on Thursday as the school’s Service Day sought to teach students that they are “part of something bigger than themselves.”
The brainchild of and organized by GCMS Assistant Principal David Morgan, around 900 middle school students spread out around the city and cleaned up the grounds at the middle school and Wilkey Elementary School; planted raised gardens at the middle school; performed a deep cleaning at the preschool; visited residents of Grayson Nursing & Rehab Center; assisted in organizing and distributing food at Grayson County Alliance; and cleaned the grounds at Beville Park, among other services.
“I’m a firm believer in community service, and our kids need to go out and basically show exactly how good they truly are,” Morgan said about the one of the motivations behind Service Day. “Quite often you hear people in our community talk about how kids have changed, and how there’s not necessarily any good coming out of them, but that’s the furthest thing from the truth.”
The Service Day platform is also a way, Morgan feels, to display to the community the intrinsic good that’s in all children.
“We have a lot of awesome kids here in Grayson County,” Morgan said, “and we wanted to showcase our students in going out and doing projects, taking care of community needs; some of the basic ones that we can take care of. We are fortunate, there are some people in our community that are less fortunate. They may not have the ability to do certain things that maybe we can take of for them.”
Morgan’s hope is that Service Day plants the idea in students’ minds that helping others, particularly those less fortunate, is a key aspect of living a fulfilling life and making the world a better place for everyone to live.
“Our main goal is to get kids out, starting in their heart that, ‘Hey, you know what, I can go help people; I can go show people love’ and things of that nature, where they may not think of doing that at this age,” Morgan stated. “We’re hoping to set seeds within them that they see that they are part of something bigger, and that they can contribute to help people around them.
“Basically, just getting kids out and having the opportunity to show love and putting back into the community … so it’s all about getting these kids to understand that they are part of something bigger than themselves.”
And, according to teacher Rebecca Kimber — who lauded the group of children who worked at Wilkey — the students responded with gusto in completing their public service.
“Today has been fantastic. They’ve come in eager to work and help. They’ve gotten it done quickly and very professionally. They’ve been very hard workers,” she said.
(Headline photo: Students planting a raised garden at Grayson Co. Middle School)
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
