Club’s collection shows they care

Collecting school supplies for hurricane victims and conducting

canned food drives for the less fortunate are just some of the ways

the John Burroughs High School Junior Civitan Club has found to make

a positive impact in the lives others -- and gain a feeling of

happiness and satisfaction in their own.

The group, which is currently over 100 members strong, is working

on a project to collect and distribute backpacks filled with school

supplies to children who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

The Club’s president, 16-year-old junior Jessica Yount, said

working on the project helped her feel connected to those who

experienced the disaster, despite distance.

“When I hear about things across the country, it’s hard to know

what it’s like for those people,” Jessica said. “But to see them and

to know we’re helping those people out is a great feeling.”

Project and Membership Director Stella Nguyen, 17, was also glad

participating in the Junior Civitan Club gave her a chance to help

out those affected by the hurricane.

“I’m happy we’re involved,” Stella said. “I watch the news every

day and it breaks my heart how they possessed so much one minute and

that they could lose everything in the next.”

Every month the club focuses on at least one school project and

one community project.

On Oct. 29 the group will hold a haunted house in the school’s

gymnasium to kick off their “Can-do” canned food drive campaign,

where those wishing to gain admittance can bring either a canned food

item or a $5 donation.

“We’ll be taking the gym and turning it into two haunted houses,

one for younger kids so we don’t scare the bejesus out them and one

for older kids,” Jessica said.

The event will also include face painting and candy distribution.

The group also recently helped out the local chapter of Families

of SMA with their Walk-n-Roll event on Sept. 18, designed to help

raise money and awareness about the childhood genetic disease spinal

muscular atrophy.

“It was an honor for me that the people running it asked us to

help, and it was really fun actually,” Stella said. “I love being

around kids, and being able to help them makes me feel good.”

Junior Civitan Members put up posters and signs, handed out

T-shirts and supervised to make sure those participating in the event

were safe.

The club is a part of Civitan International, a public service

organization that emphasizes helping people with developmental

disabilities.

Members pay initiation fees and membership dues, the bulk of which

goes to fund brain research at the Civitan International Research

Center in Birmingham, Ala.

“I saw the cause it made me so happy to be working for it,” Stella

said of the club’s connection to the research center.

The club’s advisor, English teacher Lauren Marcos, said in

addition to helping the community, the students who participate in it

build on their own characters.

“It gives them a sense of leadership,” Marcos said. “It really

helps them empathize with people who are not as well off as they are

and it gives them a buy into their community.”

Students also say what they gain from participating in the club’s

service projects is simple emotional satisfaction.

“Sometimes you think about how hard it is, and how much work it

is,” Jessica said.

“But the warm and fuzzy feeling you get when you know you’re

helping someone you haven’t even met, but they’re so thankful for

everything you’re giving them -- that makes it totally worth it,” she

added.