‘Paying it forward’ lifestyle grows at Kenton High School

As the principal of Kenton High School, I am extremely proud of how our students and staff members continue to be actively involved in many different community service and fund-raising projects to support charitable endeavors. Here are some examples of the activities students and staff has been involved in this school year.
• The KHS Student Council organized the annual WBL Food Drive in November. For the third year in a row, Kenton High School won the WBL competition. The students and staff donated over 4,000 in food items and over $275 to local Helping Hands Outreach Food Pantry. A total of 24 shopping carts full of food were donated district wide.
• Mrs. Smith’s Life Skills class has continued our school wide recycling program. We have been recycling our paper, plastic, and aluminum cans throughout the building for the past four years. She has worked with the Hardin County Solid Waste and Recycling Facility to obtain recycling bins and located them in every classroom and office area. Plastic and aluminum receptacles are placed in the cafeteria for collection. All recyclables are transported to the local recycling vendor on a monthly basis. Over 6,100 pounds of paper, plastic and aluminum was recycled at KHS this year!
• Eighteen seniors (14 percent of the senior class) were active volunteers in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Program of Hardin County. They mentored at-risk elementary students once a week throughout the year.
• The FCA chapter and their advisor, Mr. Dudek, sponsored a Hat and Glove Tree during Christmas time. They collected winter hats and gloves for needy children in the community. They also sponsored “Cans for Pancakes” in which students could enjoy a pancake breakfast with the donation of canned goods for the annual food drive.
• Our fifth annual fund-raising drive for the fight against cancer was a great success. The KHS cheerleaders sold “Cheer for the Cure” T-shirts to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Cancer Research. This event alone raised over $4,000. In conjunction with Winter Spirit Week, our students and staff collected $2,600 during this weeklong campaign. This event involved students bringing in pennies (as well as other denominations) in an attempt to “stall” their teacher from teaching that day’s lesson. The teachers could not begin class until they counted all of the money, one penny at a time. This took place during the week of February 6 through 10 and a different class period was used each day. This week culminated with a school wide assembly including competitions between students and staff. All proceeds from this event went to the American Cancer Society. In 2010, 330 local cancer patients benefited from the American Cancer Society resources.
• The Ohio Hi Point/Kenton Chapter of FFA and JROTC have completed numerous community service projects throughout the district.
• The annual Red Cross Blood Drive was a huge success! This year our students and staff members donated 88 productive units of blood. Kenton High School received the Hardin County Red Cross Youth of the Year Award in 2011 from the American Red Cross Association. No other school in Allen or Hardin County had as many donations.
• On several occasions throughout the school year, our staff participated in fund-raising activities through Friday Dress Down Day donations for a variety of charitable causes. Some of them include raising money for Celebrating Aca-demic Achievement (CAT) Card rewards, WBL Food Drive, Cheer for the Cure. Staff donations this year have totaled over $1,000! Coach Woody Hayes’ motto of “Paying It Forward” is alive and well at KHS.

By RICK ABBOTT,
Kenton High School Principal

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Posted by Kenton Times on June 4, 2012. Filed under Reader Editorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry