JBS National Honor Society Spearheads Community Service Projects

Each year, The June Buchanan School sponsors many charitable events to contribute to their community and to continue the mission of the school: “emphasizing the development of character, responsibility, leadership, and service.”  This year, the June Buchanan chapter of the National Honor Society sponsored two events that demonstrated the willingness of JBS students to help out those in need—whether it be people or animals!

The traditional canned food drive has long been a holiday activity at JBS.  This year, the NHS and the Senior Class took charge of this campaign.  Two seniors were assigned to each class (pre-school through 11th grade).  They visited their assigned classes daily and urged younger students to bring in cans of food.  Seniors then counted the cans and tallied the totals each day to announce which class was in the lead.  Dean Amanda Clark rewarded the 6th/7th grade class with a pizza party and a movie for bringing in the most cans toward this project.

National Honor Society president, Keisha Short, stated that “Service to others is a part of our school’s mission statement.  We are more than happy to do our part for our community.  Hopefully this helped our many families during the holidays.”  Over 2,000 canned food items were delivered to Caney Baptist Church as a result of the students’ hard work.

While the canned food drive is an annual event at JBS, this year the NHS also wanted to sponsor a new project.  Many organizations hold food drives similar to the one at JBS, but not many projects are focused on collecting food and supplies for animals suffering through the cold winter months at animal shelters.  For this reason, JBS sponsored a special month-long event called “Operation Furry Friends” in order to gather food, blankets, towels, and treats for animals at the local Perry County Animal Shelter.

As members of the NHS organized this project, they decided to each adopt a class of fellow students to cheer and motivate while raising awareness and support for this wonderful cause. As a result, every student—from pre-school and daycare all the way to 12th grade—made a contribution of dog or cat food, bowls for food and water, toys, blankets, etc.

 The June Buchanan School’s guidance counselor and National Honor Society sponsor, Mrs. Reynolds, wanted this event to truly focus on animals that have been abandoned or still remain in the animal shelter to be adopted. Reynolds stated that, “I believe it is our responsibility to not only give back to our community and fellow man, but to help the wonderful creatures God has blessed us with.” Many animals were indeed helped as “Operation Furry Friends” proved successful.  Hundreds of pounds of cat and dog food were collected and delivered to the animal shelter by JBS senior class students.