The holidays often inspire an aura of goodwill and generosity. As a community service project, the students of Camdenton High School’s Leadership class hosted a chili cook-off. After deliberation, the students decided that the funds generated would be best utilized by a charity close to heart and home. The Helping Hands Homeless Shelter of Camdenton was agreed upon unanimously. Helping Hands sponsors a thrift store located just before the Camdenton Airport on Old South Highway 5. All proceeds from this shop also go to the homeless shelter. The homeless shelters mission is “to offer a hand up, not a hand out.”
This shelter is different from others in many regards. Unlike shelters in most areas, including larger cities, the people seeking refuge there are not statistics. Instead, they are people, who may have made bad choices with their life, but still people at that. Instead of just providing a cot to sleep on, and a few warm meals, Helping Hands actually takes steps to help transform their mindset. Their six month program fosters the search for job prosperity and ability, along with willingness, to make conscious choices. This not only sets the stage for a brighter future for them and their family, but also aids in their growth into a productive members of society.
All of these reasons, along with the shelter being close to home, were what influenced the group’s decision to select Helping Hands. After the decision was made about who to donate to, the students got to work planning and organizing the event. They decided to divide the project up into phases, based on what needed to be logically accomplished to move the task along smoothly. The class groups and committees dedicated to certain parts of the project, including advertising, supplies, prizes, and miscellaneous. After that, the students broke the larger groups like advertising and supplies down into smaller subcommittees. With students gravitating towards committees that correlated with personal aptitudes and interests, the project got off to a great start. Some exerted creative abilities on jobs like designing and creating posters to use as advertisements, while others used deliberative characteristics to negotiate with local businesses for things like donated supplies or prizes, or permission to display advertisements in their businesses. All hands were on deck and ready to jump in wherever and whenever needed!
Three months later, hard work and dedication shone through when the time had come for the Chili Cook-Off. The students had gathered fourteen entries, which meant fourteen delicious chilis to be tasted and tried. With the Laker Trunk-or-Treat happening right outside the doors of the school, the aroma of warm chili enticed a lot of foot traffic from parents and children alike on a cool October afternoon. With an entire hallway devoted to the cook-off, fully adorned with Halloween decorations, the students made sure that everything went smoothly. From the decorating, helping set up entries, admissions, all the way to clean up, the event was completely run by the students, with support from their teacher Mrs. Amanda Riley and Administration.
After the event, the students were excited to see if all of their work had paid off. Everyone was hoping that everything they had done to ensure the project’s success had been worth it. The proceeds were collected and counted after. The students raised over five hundred dollars for the shelter. In a world where so much of the news is devastating and downcast, it’s refreshing to see the youth of the community doing something to change all that.
Written by: Camdenton High School senior students
Raline Lawson and Taylor Rogger