Typical volunteering activities for clubs include bringing supplies, toiletries and food for people in need. That’s why people don’t usually expect donation events for pets.

Students of Jobs for American Graduates Kansas decided to do just that in order to fulfill their community service requirements for the year.

“Part of our qualifications … for the actual program is [that] we have to get 10 hours of community service per year,” said Jane Anderson, JAG-K teacher. 

JAG-K is a newer program at Manhattan High that was only opened at the school three years ago. It is a class that students are meant to take for all four years in order to help them reach success and be prepared for the world after high school. 

“We actually learn a lot,” sophomore Russell Beatty said. “We didn’t know how to make resumes, or cover letters, or how to get a job and Jade [Anderson] helped us.”

Students work on community service projects during class, which allows them to work on them as a team. 

“Our class had kind of sat down and brainstormed different local and virtual opportunities,” Anderson said. “The students kind of picked out Riley County Humane Society as just one they were interested in.”

The class reached out to the Riley County Humane Society to ask them whether they had any opportunities open for the students to help with. The students decided to partner with the organization to collect donations for animals for the month of April. The donation boxes are located at both East and West campus in the main office.

“We had a couple of days where we just brainstormed and planned out the whole community service project,” Anderson said. “Students were broken up into groups and they were tasked with different things.” 

Students divided up into three groups to work on decorating donation boxes, making flyers to inform students and staff of what items JAG-K was looking for and writing daily announcements to be read every morning. 

“We check every week on the box,” Anderson said. “And then we store it in our classroom until we will drop it off to them next week.”

During this project, JAG-K students are not only helping the Riley County Humane Society get supplies, but they are also getting their service hours in while having a fun time doing it. 

“There’s this perception that JAG-K is for the bad kids or the kids that are failing or falling behind,” Anderson said. “There’s no one-size, one ideal student. It’s definitely not for bad kids, we welcome anyone. Anyone can benefit from this program, it’s just students who can benefit from the additional support and resources and are willing and wanting to be a part of something bigger.”