Community Service Projects
From filling boxes with supplies for needy children in other countries to ringing bells for the Salvation Army to collecting food for the local soup kitchen, USJ students and faculty are busy with many community service projects during the school year.
Christmas gifts
• As an Upper School holiday project, the National Honor Society, along with the Middle School, is organizing Holiday Assistance for the Carl Perkins Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse. Many children will be in foster homes this year during the holidays, and the Carl Perkins Center provides assistance to those foster families in the form of Christmas gifts. USJ will sponsor several children and deliver gifts to the Center for distribution.
• Seventh and eighth graders are donating filled Christmas Bags with trinkets, toys, and candy for the children of San Gerónimo, El Salvador.
• The senior class coordinated a Christmas Drive of clothing and toys for Christmas Partners.
• Lower School faculty and staff will ring bells to raise money for the Salvation Army outside Kroger north all day on Monday, December 17.
• Middle School students also are ringing bells for the Salvation Army.
• Third, fourth, and fifth grade French classes are donating nonperishable food items to help needy families in our community. The Christmas Project is sponsored by the Jackson Area Relief Ministry, Salvation Army, and United Way
• The Spanish Club and National Spanish Honor Society, with the help of the USJ Art Department, annually assemble an Angel Christmas Tree. With the selection of each angel ornament from the tree, goods are donated to the people of Central America and are then delivered by local churches via mission trips.
• Cindy Bell’s fifth grade class is writing letters to send to Major Luke Calhoun, student Ray Howard's uncle, who is stationed in Baghdad, Iraq. The letters will be sent in a care package.
• SADD officers raise money to sponsor a family from the Women's Rape Assistance Program as a yearly Christmas project. They are selling Chick-Fil-a minis to students the week of November 26 to raise money. Last year, our "minis" sale earned more than $300 for the victims of tornados in Enterprise, AL.
• Advisory groups have been given names of children and their wish lists. Gifts for the children will be collected on December 4. Those with questions should contact Stacey Puffer, Gabe Hart, or Katherine Burton, National Honor Society President.
• Lower School students collected 1,195 pounds of food items for RIFA Backpacks for Kids. Each grade was responsible for a different snack item to help the Regional Inter-Faith Association fill mini-backpacks of food. Public schools have identified children who come to school on Mondays having had little or nothing to eat during the weekend. These same children qualify for free breakfast and lunch while at school. Every Friday, RIFA distributes more 195 mini-backpacks of food to these children at their school in order to be assured that they will have food to eat on Saturdays and Sundays. The food items include instant oatmeal packets, individual boxes of cereal, cereal bars/granola bars, packages of raisins, 15 oz. cans of fruits or vegetables, 15 oz. cans ravioli/spaghetti/lasagna, 7.25 oz. boxes of mac & cheese, and peanut butter or cheese crackers.
• Esther Stewart’s junior kindergarten class is participating in a Scholastic Charity project entitled "Classrooms Care." For every classroom that reports they have read 100 books by December 31, Scholastic donates up to 1 million books to children in need. Students can log onto the Scholastic site to see their class listed in the "Classrooms Care" Hall of Fame. Students took home certificates and bookmarks for participating in reading during the semester, and a day was spent in celebration with lots of "100" counting and coloring fun.
• Star Mansfield's Cubs class read 100 books for the Scholastic Book Club "Reading is Giving" program. The Scholastic Book Company then donated 100 books to a school in need of books because of hurricane destruction.
• In conjunction with the Tennessee Dental Association's Seventh District Dental Alliance, USJ Scout Troop 102 recently participated in a dental bag assembly project. Three hundred dental bags of tooth brushes, floss, mouthwash, tooth paste, and toiletries were given to RIFA's soup kitchen and distributed on Thanksgiving Day.
2006-2007 school year
USJ student groups of all ages were involved in community service all year long, but the holidays were exceptionally busy. Here were some of the projects…
• More than 225 Upper and Middle School students rang bells for the Salvation Army at Sam’s, Wal-Mart north, and Kroger on Parkway. The students, working in teams, filled 135 hours of shifts. Faculty and staff from all divisions also donated time to ring bells at Kroger on both Parkway and Stonebrook Place.
• Lower School students filled 233 shoe boxes with toys, school supplies, t-shirts, hats, gloves, and toiletries for needy children across the world as part of Operation Christmas Child, a kids-helping-kids effort of the international relief organization, Samaritan’s Purse.
• The Middle School Student Council collected 3,500 cans of food for RIFA’s food pantry.
• Upper School Spanish Club members collected gifts for children in Guatemala and Nicaragua through their angel tree.
• The Upper School SADD Club provided Christmas gifts to a family adopted through the Wo/Men’s Resource Assistance Program.
• First grade classes made ornaments to decorate the tree at Old Charley's.
• USJ’s Boy Scout Troop 102 collected 1,600 pounds of canned goods during its "One Day of Service" November 18.
• In February, Lower School students participated in a Mathathon for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Two years ago, the students raised $28,000 for the hospital. Last year, they raised $14,000 with a Jump Rope for Heart event for the American Heart Association. The AHA has named USJ one of the top 10 schools in the state for this effort.
• Lower School collected leftover Christmas party treats and goodies for the RIFA's Soup Kitchen. Each class was given a shopping bag and were encouraged to carefully wrap and pack the leftover party food and goodies.
• The fourth grade student council and Guidance Counselor, Miss Natalie Lockridge, visited Alexandria Place every month. Not only did they interact and visit with the residents, but also, the students brought a smile and fun activities. Some of those activities included reading, working on a craft together, presenting a play, and singing. Both groups enjoyed and looked forward to these special times together.
• Middle School students filled snack packs for local children who are on the free school lunch program, but need food over the weekend.
• French students raised money for the Humane Society with their annual Mardi Gras celebration.
• The National Art Honor Society's Service Project was the annual Bruins Arts Festival for the community each fall.
• The Middle School planned a community service day where students did projects across the community.
• USJ students must have 50 hours of community service to graduate, and all student organizations must complete at least one service project each year.
Service to the community is just a part of learning at USJ.
