Christmas? Just a couple of weeks away? It seems like time is just flying by, just like how Thanksgiving was already a few weeks ago. One day that will stand the test of time this school year was our annual Day of Giving extravaganza.

Thanks to student and faculty responses from last year, the SHOUT club was able to manage a smooth half day for everyone.

The only “real” problems the club faced were that some students came to school during the half day when they had previously said they weren’t going to meaning organizers had to find last-minute places for these students to participate. (For future days of giving, please let event organizers know your plans so the day can only get smoother.)

In addition to some unexpected student appearances, some important Amazon supply packages didn’t show up for the even, causing one of the event leaders, Ms. Aimee Firmani, to scramble to get enough earrings for Beaver Area home-bound residents.

The day’s organizers—Mrs. Heather Bixler and Ms. Firmani—were stationed by the bell tower door entrance and managed the operations to ensure all went well.

Besides staff members, some community members such as local pastor Galbraith-Cordes helped as well.

Every group was able to successfully reach their goal, which is incredible considering how much there was to do and how many people in the community were helped through this event.

Such activities this year included: making craft kits for the local library, sorting clothes for Adoption Connection, reading and making crafts with CSE students, blanket-making for The Center at DRE, making ornaments for Bags & Blessings Christmas party, making fall/winter crafts for Beaver Meadow’s residents, writing cards for CH patients, veterans, active service members, and mental health patients, helping Beaver County Humane Society and Rochester Salvation Army, baking cookies, making bracelets and packing purses for the Women's Center, planting bulbs, recycling, leaving positive messages around MS/HS campus, creating care packages for area homebound residents, cleaning Brady's Run walking trails and Vanport bike trails, caroling and musical performance at Beaver Meadows.

The activity that I participated in this year was actually not on the list but still SHOUT approved: a group of students were taken to clean up a vandalized cemetery by Four Mile Church.

It’s rather disheartening to see such a historic cemetery ruined by others, especially considering that this was the original site of Four Mile Church. The site was much older than I expected whenever I found one grave that said the person had passed in 1815. But that didn’t stop us uncovering headstones with some trusty rakes and leaf blowers.

“Yeah, it’s really great to have students clean up the cemetery like this. We [Four Mile] really value our roots here and were saddened to see what had happened. In the future though we hope to fully renovate [the cemetary] to the best of our ability,” said former super sub and current Chick-Fil-A employee Nate Heidengren.

Besides getting more funding outside of the club, SHOUT hopes to aim for yet another and even better Day of Giving for 2024–thanks for giving back!