I'm really tired

Kansas Association for Youth (KAY) Citizenship Week has many different benefits to the community. 

“I think all the days are very beneficial. They serve very specific purposes and they help our different parts KAY supports,” senior co-president Alexis DeLong said.

This year the KAY citizenship week was permanently moved to November, the week before Thanksgiving,  instead of the first week of December this year. 

“Several KAY sponsors requested to move Citizenship Week to November, which is a less hectic time of year than December,” KAY co-sponsor Sam Cahoone said.

Each day this week the KAY organization has put on a theme that would help give back to the community or world. Citizenship Week was started in 2003. 

On Monday, the KAY organization held a staff breakfast. There were about 15-20 staff members that came. The KAY members served bacon, pancakes, waffles, fruit, juice and coffee.

“It was just nice to have breakfast provided to us and a good start to the day,” math instructor Cade Witte said. 

Tuesday the KAY members brought homemade cookies to distribute to local businesses. 

“We had every club member make two dozen cookies for the businesses so we had well over 200 to 300 cookies. But we made packages with 12 cookies in them to hand out and we went to about 25 businesses,” DeLong said.

Wednesday was hat day which meant students would pay $1 to wear a hat. About 45 people paid to wear hats.

“We will use this money to buy chickens or goats for people in Third World countries,” senior Avia Banks said. 

Thursday was Soles 4 Souls, students could bring a pair of shoes to donate. The organization collected 16 boxes of shoes. Then they were sent to Soles 4 Souls in Alabama. When they arrive they will count all our shoes and then let us know how many shoes we donated. The reason that the KAY organization does this service project is to help people in Africa from getting sand jiggers, which embed in people's feet and become very painful.

“With our donation of shoes that the kids brought, shoes will help many people from having these terrible sand jiggers,” Cahoone said. 

On Friday was Can-the-Teacher Day, students brought canned foods, which were taken to the C4 food pantry. Student Council donated 10 turkeys to the event, and a total of 1548 pounds were collected for donation.

“Our goal is to block every teacher’s door, with 75 pounds is required to do so. That would equate to 1350 pounds. Last year we collected 1700 pounds, so we’d like to see more than that,” KAY co-sponsor Alison Eidman said. 

Following the canned food drive, high school students participated in Deck the Halls, for which each class was assigned a specific hallway to decorate for Christmas. The freshman class was selected as the winner.

Saturday is to “Serve my home” which means to clean out and organize your room and closets.

“My favorite part of the week is when we get to do things for our nation and world,” DeLong said.

Seniors Mayah Dorsey and Cooper Schroer unpack food at the food pantry after can the teacher day. Photo by Leah Francis

Seniors Mayah Dorsey and Avia Banks deliver cookies to local businesses. Photo by Grace O'Brien

Seniors Grace O'Brien and Avia Banks pour granola for the staff breakfast. Photo by Linda Drake

Junior Josiah McKee brings shoes in for soles 4 souls. Photo by Emily Miser