From left to right, Luke Churchill and Frederick Deschenes dropped off donations collected by the Leo Club at Oliver Ames High School to the nonprofit Father Bill’s & MainSpring. (Photo courtesy Easton Public Schools)
EASTON — Superintendent Dr. Lisha Cabral and Principal Kelly Cavanaugh are proud to share that the Leo Club at Oliver Ames High School is undertaking service projects aimed at fighting hunger, providing clothing and helping the needy in Easton and the surrounding communities.
The student group, which is sponsored by the Easton Lions Club and overseen by English teacher Malathy Sankaran, focuses on community service, providing assistance to seniors, feeding the homeless and beautifying the environment.
The Oliver Ames Leo Club, which currently includes 30 student members, meets for an hour every Thursday afternoon. That’s when executive members present ideas for service projects and students step up to provide leadership for group initiatives.
Members of the service group have assessed poverty in the Easton community and surrounding areas through research and interviews with the directors of local food pantries.
This school year, students in the Leo Club raised funds by selling chocolates, using the proceeds to buy the food and materials to make and pack 250 lunches that they donated to local homeless shelters. The meals included sandwiches packed in brown bags together with fruit, a treat and a water bottle. This volunteer service project took place over the course of two campaigns, one in December and one in March.
The Leo Club students also ran a food drive in the days leading up to Halloween, calling it “Trick or Treat — So All Can Eat,” donating the proceeds to the Easton Food Pantry.
The Leo Club members also engaged in a student-powered learning initiative and competition called the Explore.Act.Tell. (EAT) Program. The EAT Program is supported by Albertsons Companies and challenges the students to work together and create awareness in their community about food insecurity. Through this program, students learned more about the impact they can have on their peers to make a difference in the world. The program taught Leo Club members that, no matter how small or insignificant these acts of kindness may seem, they are never a waste of time.
The Oliver Ames Leo Club has been participating in the EAT Program’s competition for the past three years, winning $1,000 each time for its presentations on food insecurity in the Easton area. As part of this effort, the Leo Club produced a slide show and shared it with classmates using QR codes that the group put on display around the school, providing facts about food waste and interviews with representatives of local food pantries. The group then shared a survey with classmates regarding their food waste and also tried to prevent food waste in the school cafeteria, attempting to salvage fruit to give to local homeless shelters.
Other charitable initiatives undertaken by the Leo Club this school year include the following:
- Collected and washed used eyeglasses from all the schools in Easton before donating them.
- Bought cards to write thank you notes to the teachers.
- Volunteered at the Mansfield Food Pantry.
- Wrote and delivered letters to local senior centers as a part of the “Letters Against Isolation” campaign. The letters were delivered to the Walpole Council on Aging and the Norfolk Senior Center.
In past years, the Oliver Ames Leo Club has done the following:
- Planted flowers near the Oliver Ames signboard.
- Cleaned up school grounds during the fall and spring, beautifying the school and promoting biodiversity.
- Collected more than 2,000 pairs of socks and winter clothing, before donating them to homeless shelters.
The Oliver Ames Leo Club was dormant for several years, before it was restarted in 2019.
“The Leo Club establishes a structure for each year, and we hope to continue to make a difference, not just in our community but surrounding communities as well,” said faculty advisor Malathy Sankaran. “We would like to continue to use our resources to help those in need and educate those in our community.”
Superintendent Dr. Cabral and Principal Cavanaugh both commended the students who make up the Leo Club and Sankaran for the positive impact they are having on the community and their fellow students.
“We are extremely proud of our Leo Club members for all their efforts to make a difference in our school and our community,” said Principal Cavanaugh. “We hope that their volunteerism will inspire their fellow students and others from the community. Kudos to the students, Ms. Sankaran, and our local nonprofits for all of their hard work to make a difference in the world around us.”
“I have been very impressed by the volunteer efforts of our students in the Leo Club,” Superintendent Dr. Cabral said. “I want to thank all of them and Ms. Sankaran for representing Oliver Ames High School and Easton Public Schools in a positive manner, helping others and for giving back to our community.”
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Members of the Oliver Ames Leo Club wash used glasses that were later donated to people in need. (Photo courtesy Easton Public Schools)
After raising funds by selling chocolates, students in the Oliver Ames Leo Club bought food and materials needed to make and pack 250 lunches to donate to homeless shelters. The meals included sandwiches packed in brown bag, together with fruit, a treat and a bottle of water. (Photo courtesy Easton Public Schools)
The Oliver Ames Leo Club raised donations for the Easton Food Pantry. (Photo courtesy Easton Public Schools)
In previous years, the Oliver Ames Leo Club planted flowers near the Oliver Ames signboard. (Photo courtesy Easton Public Schools)
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