Petersburg High School students spent their last day before winter break serving the community as part of the school’s Day of Giving.
From handing out food bags and organizing donations for a local nonprofit, to baking and delivering cookie boxes with cards and ornaments to businesses, to babysitting, caroling, visiting elderly folks in care facilities, shoveling snow, deep cleaning their school, handing out free soup and more — whatever the task, students said they were doing it to give back to the community that supports them.
Downtown, inside the E.C. Phillips cookhouse, a few high schoolers organized donated clothes and outdoor gear into dozens of labeled totes and boxes.
Their group was one of two that were volunteering for Humanity In Progress, a local nonprofit focused on helping people meet their basic needs; the other group was across town handing out food bags at HIP and packing up donations.
Students volunteered at various placements throughout Petersburg on Dec. 19 as part of the school’s Day of Giving.
“The Day of Giving is something we do at the high school to encourage kids to give back and volunteer in our community,” said high school teacher Megan Smith, who was helping out with the students at the cookhouse. “We connect with other organizations in town to give the kids an opportunity to just show that they care about our community, and can volunteer in a fun way.”
It’s been a few years since the last Day of Giving happened.
“We’ve done it in the past, and they’re kind of bringing it back,” Smith said.
The school’s academic calendar changed, moving final exams to after winter break, which opened up an opportunity for the school to revive its Day of Giving.
Sophomores Lexie Tow and Sean Gacchina spent the morning sorting through stacks of donated items.
“Basically,” Lexie explained, “people just bring their stuff in, and then we’ll sort through everything, put them through different bins, like kids clothes, men’s pants, men’s shirts … whatever they have pretty much to give us.”
The donations will be given out during the Project Connect resource fair in January.
Lexie labeled a box while Sean leaned on the center table full of half-sorted items. They said giving back to the community has been fun for them.
“What makes it fun for me is you just get to see, like, everything people donate, and some of the stuff is actually pretty nice,” said Sean. “It’s just cool that people, like, go out of their way to donate.”
He said he chose this placement because it seemed fun and like something that “needed to be done.” Lexie agreed.
“I like cleaning and stuff and organizing, and so I thought that would be fun to do,” Lexie said.
She found a pet-sized sweater mixed up in a box of bags, and the group got back to organizing.
Up the hill from town, inside the high school building, a couple students deep cleaned the gym while blasting ABBA songs.
Meanwhile, upstairs in the school’s culinary room, more than a dozen apron-wearing high schoolers were busy baking cookies.
“We’re going to deliver them to all of the businesses in town that have helped support the school,” high school junior Rebecca Midkiff said, arranging decorated cookies on a plate. “Another group is making cards and the ornaments are also going with this, to be like a little gift.”
Eden Davis, a high school senior, helped roll cookie dough in the kitchen. It’s her class’ second time participating in the Day of Giving; the first time was back in their freshman year.
“I think it’s really fun. I mean, I feel like it’s a good way to celebrate the holidays and give back to our community,” Eden said. “They do so much for us and supporting the school.”
Most of the teens in the kitchen were part of the school’s culinary class. Eden said they made hundreds of cookies that morning, using different recipes and taking creative liberties.
She giggled describing how they made some “improvised” cookies that had just come out of the oven.
“It was supposed to be M&M chocolate chip, but then we couldn’t find chocolate chips, so then we tried using a chocolate bar, but that was gross, so we ended up throwing it away. And so now it’s like, pretzel-M&M-chocolate chip. So it’s a little combination,” Eden said. “But I think our best looking one is the white chocolate peppermint.”
Nearby, students sorted the different kinds of cookies into boxes. They had a list of 30 or so businesses around town that they’d deliver the fresh-baked goods to as a token of appreciation.
Back downtown, inside local real estate business Anchor Properties, a few students are serving four kinds of free soup —chicken noodle, tomato basil, cheddar cauliflower, ham and potato chowder— all also made by the high school culinary class.
Scooping a helping of soup into a to-go container, sophomore Brody Whitethorn said participating in the Day of Giving had been a fun and meaningful experience.
“It’s always good to show the community your kindness,” she said, ladle in hand. “I also just enjoy having fun and serving soups and hanging out with people at long term care … that’s what really reflected on my happiness today.”
Brody’s group was busy. Before serving soup, she said they made holiday cards with residents at the local hospital’s long term care wing. And she said volunteering there for the Day of Giving had given her something, too: a new friend.
“Her name is Leslie, and she was so sweet,” Brody said. “We made cards to give out to all of the people in long term care, just if, like, they were sick and couldn’t have company, or just something fun for them. And so I just made my card specifically for her because she was with me the whole time, and she did not want us to leave. Like, she had so much fun.”
Brody said she wanted to go back and visit her friend at the hospital again for the holidays. But in the meantime, she said she’s happy serving soup.
Across the street inside the town’s pharmacy, a big group of teens sang Christmas carols, huddled over sheet music and giggling over the occasional voice crack.
It was one of the last stops on their tour around town, caroling at elder care facilities and a bunch of local businesses.
The teacher mentioned their voices felt pretty worn out by that point, but the group was still having fun — ending the Day of Giving on a high note.
