Harrisburg High School offers clubs for students to get involved with their school and community. Key Club and White Hats are two clubs that revolve around community service. This year they have decided to team up and help each other out at different events. This choice has helped bring more volunteers to events and an increase in students who participate in community service.

Key Club is sponsored by English teacher Cathy Wall and science teacher Janet Hughes, and White Hats is sponsored by English teacher Heather Mandrell. Both of these clubs have been active in serving the community.

Junior Drazha Mihalovich serves on the Key Club Board of Directors as the White Hats liaison. He is a member of both clubs.

“I like how they coincide this year. They both help out the community so much. We have made food for Heaven’s Kitchen and have helped out our town,” Mihalovich said.

Both of these clubs have set up a point system in which students earn points by volunteering. At the end of the year, depending on the amount of points the students have, White Hats have taken a trip to the Ronald McDonald House in St. Louis.

“My favorite thing is the trip we take if you have enough points at the end of the year,” Mihalovich said. “ We go to the Ronald McDonald House and help the sick kids. These are the kids who are so sick they can’t leave the hospital and we go grocery shopping and come back and make them food.”

Key Club seniors are eligible for a scholarship from the local Kiwanis Club if they earn the required five service credits.

Even though community service is something that looks really good on college applications, these students do most of their work out of the kindness of their hearts.

“It makes me feel so amazing to help people who really need it,” Key Club president Paige Potts said. “It’s my favorite part about being in Key Club.”

Community service is a great thing to do, but it can still be very time-consuming. These students go to school every day, participate in sports or other clubs, and still make time to get in their community service hours.

“Once a month we have the board of directors meeting during lunch and I do two to three projects a month each being about two or three hours,” Potts said.

The club advisors, Wall, Hughes, and Mandrell, are very proud of how hard-working and involved their members are.

“It makes me feel like the time I put into the White Hats is worth it.  My hope is for each member to develop a deep sense of volunteerism and give back to their community after joining the White Hats,” Mandrell said.

Though Wall will be retiring from Harrisburg High at the end of this school year, she plans on staying active with  Key Club.

“Key Club has been one of the most rewarding parts of my teaching, and it’s one of the things I’m going to miss the most when I retire,” Wall said.

Wall believes that service clubs teach lessons that will go far beyond high school. According to her, they teach humanity, discipline, and overall how to give back to the community.

“Teaching is all about equipping young people to be productive members of society, and encouraging them to give service to their community is really important in my opinion,” Wall said.