C-L students making the community a better place

Clarion-Limestone students and teacher involved with Clarion County Youth Council shown here are: Riley Hummel, Ashley Daugherty, Ian McNaughton, Jennifer Simpson, teacher/advisor, Maddi Griffith, Katelyn Dailey, and Greyson Knepp. (Submitted photo)
From staff reports

The mission of the Clarion-Limestone School District students involved with the Clarion County Youth Council is “To make our community a better place through volunteering in any way we can.”

Currently there are six students at C-L involved with the CCYC, and they are living up to their mission through the projects they do each year for their area.
Each year, the CCYC as a whole chooses a topic to focus their projects on, both in their own schools and county-wide, and this year’s topic is poverty and hunger in Clarion County.

All over the county, low income families often depend on food pantries in their times of need, and food pantries depend on donations from the community around them to help keep people a little less hungry.

The C-L students have done their part in addressing both parts of the CCYC topic.

The students have completed two food drives for their local food pantry, Community Action, so far this year.

The first netted almost 200 food items, and the second drive, a “Soup-er Bowl” drive, netted more than 200 cans of soup.

Last month, the students ran another food drive, and they planned to deliver what they collected to the food pantry right before Easter break.

Another small project completed by the students had them look “beyond their back yard;” they helped impact the lives of eight orphaned children in other countries by providing them with hygiene items and small toys to make their Christmas a little brighter.

Additionally, the students, led by teacher/advisor Jennifer Simpson, an English/Speech teacher at C-L, went above and beyond their CCYC topic by holding a fundraiser to raise money for the American Child Cancer Association. The fundraiser gave students the chance to pay for a cancer awareness bracelet and to have the option to wear pajamas to school (PJAmmin’ Day) for the day.

It is encouraging to see Clarion County’s students recognizing the needs in both their own communities and beyond and doing what they can to make a difference.

For more information about the CCYC, to learn how you can help, or to submit an idea for a student project, contact Amanda Cserr, CCYC chairwoman, at (814) 223-1590.