LEWISBURG — Tri-County North High School students spent Monday, May 6, serving the community and helping with various projects throughout the village. The day was called PAWS Day, which stands for Panthers Active With Service. This was the first year this event was held.
Throughout the day, students weeded and mulched village property including the library and entrance to Apple Valley, washed the fire trucks, ambulance, and police cars, picked up trash and other debris at the park, school, cemetery, and streets throughout town, and performed maintenance at the splash pad.
According to Tri-County North teacher Shari Ferguson, the school wanted students to see what it was like to contribute to the community.
“We wanted students to gain an understanding of what being part of a community means, and that community service offers a way to show pride and appreciation through giving of time and labor,” Ferguson said. “PAWS also enabled students to experience first hand the amount of work needed to keep the village looking nice.
“The mayor and village employees were instrumental in planning and supervising. This was truly a group effort! Next year, we are hoping to extend PAWS to helping community members, such as the disabled and/or elderly. with basic property maintenance. This was our first year so we wanted to start small. Opening this up to helping individual community members will require a great deal more of adult supervision and advance planning. We didn’t hear any complaints and the students all had fun!”
