Ranger – Children at Ranger Elementary School are excited about a new endeavor that will help them with community involvement as well as leadership skills.
While in South Carolina recently, members of the Rotary Club of Murphy met with youth who were involved with the EarlyAct Program. The program is geared toward elementary students, providing them with an opportunity to gain more awareness as well as knowledge about their community and the world around them.
If it could be done elsewhere, why not at Ranger Elementary, was the thinking of Rotary president-elect Jackie Egli.
The idea was presented to Ranger Elementary School by Suzi Perkins, the liaison between Rotary and the school, as well as Greer Ivie, another club member who is an adviser to the program. Rotary also provided the students with start-up money to help them with their projects. The kids intend to purchase T-shirts with a portion of the Rotary donation.
The kids are excited, participating with enthusiasm and dedication, Perkins said.
Their first project, which will be ongoing, is to collect as many can tabs as they can, which will then take the tabs to the recycling center. The money they’ve earned will be donated to the Ronald McDonald House to help children.
Children in this EarlyAct program have also collected cans of food that were given to help the homeless.
“Being in the Early Act Club is fun, and I’m honored to help a bunch of people in need,” Ranger student Carly Rose said.
The program is being utilized by the fourth-grade students, and the original kids in the group will continue on with the program as they progress through higher grades. Hopes are that it can be done for each grade, and possibly into high school.
“The book Slacker gave us the idea,” Grayson Messex said. “Thank you to the Rotary Club for helping us start up the EAC.”
“They can’t wait to move on to the next project and get started advertising for it. They come up with wonderful ideas,” Perkins said. “They are very eager to give back.”