Students in Franklin Community High School’s Leadership through Community class collected 1,673 cans of food for the Interchurch Food Pantry earlier this school year.
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He wanted his students to make a difference beyond the four walls of his classroom.
Jeffrey Powers, a ninth-year teacher at Franklin Community High School, started “Leadership through Community” this year, a class for high school seniors. Now a semester in, they’re taking their efforts out into the community.
“Last semester, we worked on promoting positivity and mental health,” said Olivia Stone, one of the students in the class. “We did a canned food drive which was really successful with the Interchurch Food Pantry. We collected over 1,000 cans. We tried to make the school more positive. We decorated a few of the hallways with notes for the Gratitude Project, which is continuing this semester. (Students) have a form to fill out to say how people are being nice to them that day and it’s sent to that person.”
The class also includes guest speakers, all of whom have made some difference in the community, said Carly Hargis, another student.
“Something really interesting, and probably my favorite thing, we have guest speakers typically every Monday. We’ve had leaders throughout the community. We had Mayor (Steve) Barnett come in, Doug Drenth, (Powers’) high school football coach, and Coach Mike Leonard, who used to be the football coach at Franklin College.”
Additional speakers included Franklin schools superintendent David Clendening, Olympian Terry Brahm and his wife Nina Brahm, both of whom do community work in Indianapolis, and former Franklin mayor and former mayor and Indiana Department of Transportation commissioner Joe McGuinness, Powers said.
“It’s to show them there’s more than one way to be a leader,” he said. “There are lessons from people who have done a lot and succeeded in some way.”
Now, students are working on HAPPY Packets, packets with academic and creative activities, such as scavenger hunts. By completing these, they can earn weekly prizes. Local businesses can sponsor the packets, committing money to the packet project in return for their businesses’ name to be featured on the packets. While the exact logistics and schedule for the program haven’t been sorted out yet, the program will welcome incoming kindergarteners through fourth graders this summer, with a goal of including 100 students, Powers said.
“They’ll have weekly assignments with math and reading. There’s a (science, technology, engineering and math) section, there are arts and crafts activities and they’ll be able to complete these in a week and turn them in to get a reward,” he said. “We’re trying to get the kids involved and have something to do over the summer. Sometimes kids get bored and parents have to work and they don’t have anything planned for them. This is trying to fill that gap.”
As of Friday, HAPPY packets had five sponsors, Stone said.
The goal of the program is to help families be more involved with their children, said Jared Stayce, another student in the class.
“We didn’t want kids to be sitting at home with nothing to do. It was a good idea to have them do something with their families,” Stayce said. “I think it helps parents get involved with the community and helps them know what’s going on with their kids so they can enjoy each other and the community.”
