Dodson School Community Service Project

As the Dodson Class of 2021 was working on scholarships this fall, they decided that a community service project to honor and thank the elders and senior residents of the Dodson community would be a meaningful and inspirational experience. 

"It has been a rough time with the restrictions, closures, cancellations, and delays of gatherings they are so accustomed to.  The elders in our community are used to enjoying traveling to visit family, attending powwows, sporting events this time of year.  This year it has been very different", said teacher Rob Donahue, who helped guide the project. 

Although this idea was dreamed up by the seniors, other organizations (FFA, Honor's Society, JMG, Student Council, and Upward Bound) also were involved.  On Thursday, On October 12, all the students that were in gathered in the cafeteria wearing PPE (of course) and put the 30 gift bags together.  After that, the seniors and other students delivered the bags to community members.

The seniors began designing and wood-burning small signs that had inspirational quotes on them in October.  They completed 25 wood-burned signs.  The freshman added 5 key holders that they built last spring before the shutdown. This brought the project total to 30.  The seniors created a list of local community members that they would like to say "thank you" to.

"We just wanted to find a way to cheer up the elders and the community. We want them to know that we care and support them, the way they care and support us." Ireland Best said with a grin.

Students delivered gift bags containing several items and a card that says "Hope you are having a great day!".  All the students that worked on the project signed the card. Some of the items in the gift bags were a wood-burned sign, playing cards, sweetgrass, candy, calendar, word-search books, mugs, and pens. 

The students could not have done this project without the generosity of Westside, Independence Bank, and First State Bank of Malta.  Their donations to this community service project allowed the gift bags to contain several great items.