High school notebook

— (Editor's Note: Mary Deloney, a senior at Conway High School-West, will be writing a weekly education column.

She is involved in Student Congress, Caring Cats, Quill and Scroll and Shutterbug Club. She serves as co-editor of the Wampus Cat newspaper. Mary is a member of Delta Beta Sigma, the Faulkner County Youth Leadership Institute and participates in K-Life small group. A member of First Baptist Church in Conway, she enjoys eating Mexican food, spending her free time with friends and family, going to movies, watching football and taking pictures.)

Caring Cats is an organization at Conway High School devoted to community service and helping others. I had no idea what Caring Cats was my junior year, so I didn't join.

Then I started to see the community service projects they began taking on that benefited both students at school and the community. I am all about helping others in any way that I can, so I knew when Caring Cats started their membership drive this year it was an organization that I definitely wanted to be involved in.

The first meeting was held in the gym during lunch and the sponsors were providing free pizza to whomever turned in their membership form. I don't exactly agree with offering incentives to get people to do something for other people, and I was convinced before I went in there that the pizza was the only reason why people were going to this meeting. I was wrong.

I walked into the lobby of the gym and turned my form in at a table they had set up. The girlsat the table told us that we could go get our pizza and head on into the gym. I saw people skip the pizza and walk into thegym. This surprised me. Most students that I know don't just turn down free pizza. There had to be a catch.

I went into the gym and saw what had to be a couple hundred students sitting in the bleachers. All around me I heard students raving about Caring Cats and how much they loved it the previous year.

The sponsors came in and talked about Caring Cats and the service projects they have participated in. There are small things, like writing letters to soldiers in Iraq, to big things like an Angel Paw tree where needy families with students in the Conway School District have a "paw" on the tree with things they need, and students and clubs at school take a paw and give gifts to a family at Christmastime.

September's service project was to write letters to a soldier currently serving in Iraq. Before the meeting had ended, students eagerly began to write their letters.

It really makes me glad to see so many students caring about their school and community and wanting to make a difference. I am proud to say I am a member of Caring Cats and that I'm helping to make a difference.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 79 on 10/25/2007

Upcoming Events