Amid the on-going global pandemic, a concern for many officers and leaders of service-based clubs at Perry is figuring out creative ways for their club members to meet the amount of service hours required for their club.

Co-president of LEO Club Camden King stated, “We set up a Google Classroom…we’re sending out lessons to tell everyone in the club how to get hours…all [with] stuff you can do at home. We keep creating new opportunities based on things you can do on your own time, at your house.” Kyla Christensen finds the service opportunities for the LEO Club members to complete at home.

Co-president of LEO Club Ella Barnum said that some of the at-home projects the LEO Club members are working on include, “Writing thank you letters to teachers…[making] goodie-bags for homeless shelters for Christmas…[making] blankets for Project Linus, and…[making] no-sew dog toys for animal rescues.” A set number of thank-you notes, goodie-bags, blankets, or no-sew dog toys will equate to a certain number of service hours for each student. Barnum continued, saying that for LEO Club members to receive a cord at graduation, the members must complete “ten service hours for our requirement.” But the service hours can be completed entirely at home

The club sponsor of Sparrow Club, Stacey Etherington explained, “In order to keep Sparrow Club on campus…and help someone in the community, we need more support from our students; they don’t have to be a part of the club to submit their hours, so if we can get more students…just to submit their hours, we have a chance to keep the club here…We’re trying really hard to build it up this year so we can…help someone in our district.”

The goal of Sparrow Club is to accumulate enough service hours, and once enough hours are logged, a company, in this case BlackRock, will match every hour logged with a monetary sum, which the club then gives to a member of he community within the district who is struggling with medical payments. Etherington said, “It’s strictly service hours, but if you do those hours through another club-say you’re in NHS…you can still donate those hours, because you already helped a community, and we can use them and log them.” Sparrow Club needs 256 or more service hours for BlackRock to match their hours. Etherington emphasizes that any student can donate their hours using the QR Code seen on their flyers, even if they are not a member of Sparrow Club.

Etherington also said, “Our entire leadership board is really good about reaching out, finding different organizations, and networking, and setting them up to offer them [needs] out to Sparrow Club, as well as anyone on campus that needs service hours.”

The holiday season is a time where many try to serve those in their community, and Perry clubs are getting creative, in order to give back in safety.