Ravenna High School students get to work for Day of Service
Hundreds of Ravenna High School students took a day off school to serve their community, wearing orange shirts as they painted windows, picked up trash and helped out at social service agencies.
The sixth annual Day of Service brought many students to downtown Ravenna, where they painted congratulatory messages to the Class of 2024 in honor of the upcoming senior parade. Some also painted messages celebrating the upcoming 225th anniversary of Ravenna's founding.
Some of the students were helping out at Ravenna High School, which hosted a dance for people with developmental disabilities. Jessica Haynes, director of student services at the high school, said the event brought together 11 school districts and one adult day program, ranging in age from third grade to adult. Almost all attendees were from Portage County, except for one group from Dover.
Haynes said the dance is in its fifth year, taking a break in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has grown annually. Each student, as well as half a dozen teachers, received gifts which were crowdsourced from the community.
"I wanted students with disabilities to have a chance to experience a traditional school dance where there were typical students they could interact with and have inclusion," she said.
The food services program at Ravenna schools provided food for the participants, and Sunshine Cupcakes donated cupcakes. Kona Ice provided shaved ice; Harry Dukes was the DJ, Joe Delagrange made balloon animals, and there was a photo booth for participants. Students from Ravenna High School helped with face painting and with a bounce house and adaptable games set up in a gymnasium.
In downtown Ravenna, art teacher Harley Hall said students were painting 15 windows. Hall said some of the students were from his art classes, and others were from the National Honor Society. Since not all were artists, Hall provided them with templates that would be simple for amateur artists to duplicate.
Each student signed up in advance for the assignment, ensuring that they had at least some interest in their work. Those who worked downtown had the added benefit of donut and pizza donations from area businesses.
"It was really a great day for it," he said. "We couldn't have asked for a better group of kids."
Dawn Booher, who teaches American history and government at the high school, said in addition to the window painting, students were at various social service agencies such as the King Kennedy and Skeels community centers, and Maple Grove cemetery, helping with things like picking up trash and landscaping.
She said students typically enjoy the day.
"I think they don't mind it," she said. "It's a day away from school, at least. And the businesses are usually pretty nice to them."
Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at 330-298-1139 or dsmith@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Ravenna High School students get to work for Day of Service
