IJHS students give back to one of their own
Published 12:00 am Friday, September 27, 2002
As Michael Bryant, youth minister at Sharon Baptist Church, said a prayer for one of their classmates, four eighth-grade girls from Ironton Junior High grasped a banner made for him.
"We're his friends and we really care for him," said Chelsea Cleary. "He's sweet and he's a really big fighter."
That classmate is Shane Jones, a 13-year-old leukemia patient from Ironton. Currently, Shane is in Children's Hospital in Columbus.
Those four girls, members of the IJHS Kids Care Club, and others will bag groceries for tips at the Ironton Hills Pick N Save from 12-6 p.m. Saturday.
"Shane's so funny," Lindsey Mooney, club treasurer,
said. "We really miss the 'fishy face' he always did."
She and the other girls then imitated the "fishy face."
"He even did it during a Christmas play," Cleary, club secretary, said.
Twenty-eight to 30 students will bag groceries Saturday, with 15 students working two different shifts.
"We'll even carry groceries out to people's cars," IJHS Principal Jerry Watson said.
The Kids Care Club is a new addition to IJHS, with eighth-grade students Jenna Waldo as president and Madison McDaniels as vice president. The organization has done other projects, such as reading to kindergarten students and cleaning up three city blocks.
Their latest project is for one of their own.
"We hope what they will learn from this project will be carried over to high school and their adult life, and they will continue to give back to their community," Watson said.
Meanwhile, the Knights of Columbus and the Catholics for Fellowship had scheduled a benefit for Jones Saturday night, but the event was cancelled.