Giving Back
Edmonds Care Week kicks off in February, and Edmonds-Woodway High School is planning multiple events to highlight the school’s most important visions and philosophies. Compassion and responsible citizenship are not just words at the high school, but a commitment that Principal Terrance Mims and all faculty and staff believe and participate in regularly.
High school International Baccalaureate® (IB) students are required to complete a certain number of community service hours for their creativity, action and service (CAS) requirement. Also, those not in the IB program are required to complete a certain number of community service hours for their state requirements. The students also participate in events throughout their academic careers in order to prepare for their culminating project. The ASB, leadership students, and student clubs regularly engage in a variety of community service projects that help benefit local community charities and social relief agencies.
One of the ways the students, faculty and staff participate is through food and blood drives which are scheduled during Care Week in February. The blood drives benefit the American Heart Association. The food drives help provide food resources for the poor and agencies that distribute food and supplies to those in need.
The idea behind Care Week is to provide both a constructive method for students and the high school to reach out to the Edmonds community and participate in making life better for its residents, along with an opportunity to use these activities to provide teachable moments where students learn both compassion and the needs of community members. Both goals help the school and its students to grow in their community outreach. Students learn the basic concept of citizenship and what it means to be a member of a community and how compromise, work ethic and compassion contribute to making a community better for all members.
Students often share their experiences of helping individuals or watching community members bring food and supplies to help others out of the goodness of their heart. Witnessing events like a regular blood donor discussing how and why they donate blood because of past experiences in their lives, or a love for helping others, becomes a learned experience which students pass on to others and share regularly. The experience has its own reciprocity in that students’ lives and experiences are enriched as they enrich the lives of their community members.
Meanwhile, the high school is achieving its goal of teaching students to be good citizens and community members while learning just exactly what it means to be a participating community member. The maturity achieved and learning instilled will help the students reach their personal goals in life because they have had an opportunity to use and learn skills they will value for a lifetime.
Edmonds-Woodway High School’s commitment to building community by providing opportunities for their students to learn lifelong skills and goal, setting strategies using events like Edmonds Care Week, are the type of concepts envisioned by our founding fathers who believed in public education for all. The discipline of working with community leaders, faculty and staff to help provide food, supplies and blood for community members in need is an early way to create concerned community citizens as students are passing from childhood to adulthood.
Often high school students are so moved by their experience at Care Week that they use the event as a final class project or steer their careers in the direction of social work or community service. It can be a life-changing experience for all.
Edmonds Care Week is scheduled between February 8 and 10. One of the highlights beyond the activities already discussed is the Clothes for Kids, which culminates on February 11. Students and families will be asked to bring in any lightly used clothing to donate to kids and students in need. On February 11, the clothes will be collected and then donated to agencies that can disperse the items to those in need.
