Pullen partners with Helping Hands on Students Serving Others projects

Students display servant leadership

(ROCKWALL, TX – Feb. 20, 2016) Parents and students of Pullen Elementary School collected 86 bags of food to kick-start this month’s Students Serving Others (SSO) service project benefitting the Rockwall County Helping Hands Food Pantry.

Pullen faculty and students packed the gymnasium at the school to welcome Jon Bailey, president and CEO of Helping Hands, as he expressed his gratitude and excitement about partnering with Pullen for the SSO project.

“A leader can mean a lot of different things, but you guys right now, with this project that you’re doing, are demonstrating what it means to be a servant leader,” Bailey said. “There are a lot of families that sometimes go to bed hungry. So the fact that you guys are donating your food and your time to do that means those people do not have to go to bed hungry, and we thank you for that.”

SSO Coordinator Debra Harris said they aim to wrap the entire school building with all the food bags they collect.

“Our goal is to be able to wrap the school with bags,” Harris said. “We’re excited about the opportunity to serve others, to celebrate our awesome school district and to celebrate with our amazing partner in Helping Hands.”

The food bags will be delivered to the Helping Hands Food Pantry on Saturday, April 16. Helping Hands plans to decorate its float for the parade during the City of Rockwall’s Celebrate Downtown event – also occurring on April 16 – with the canned goods that the students assemble.

sos 4 — Principal Chambers (right) recognizing Teacher of the Year Courtenay Bridges (4th grade)

sos 3 — Principal Chambers honoring Paraprofessional of the Year Kiva Kelly

sos5 — 4th grader Allie Buchanan addressing the crowd.

The school also recognized its student leadership teams and their community service projects helping those in need, including Nickels for Nate, a change drive organized by Pullen 4^th graders to collect money for Camp Nate in Colorado in honor and remembrance of their fellow classmate Nate Oxford, who died after a four-year battle with brain cancer; Coins For Krafts, where Pullen SAGE students raised money to buy toys for children hospitalized over the holidays; Writers for Fighters, where students, faculty, parents and Pullen family wrote notes and letters of encouragement and appreciation to our nation’s first responders and military servicemen and women; Kindness Grams, where Pullen SAGE students sold notes of kindness which were then passed on from parents to students, students to teachers and so forth to spread kindness throughout the Pullen community and to raise money for Camp Nate. Students also helped raise over $6,000 for the American Heart Association’s Jump Rope For Heart campaign challenging kids to start living a healthy, active lifestyle to prevent future health problems.

Pullen 4^th grader Allie Buchanan attested to the strong leadership found within the Pullen community as she addressed the student body in the gymnasium.

“Pullen is a place full of leaders,” she said. “As leaders, when we see that there is something we can do to help others in need, we do it.”

What else do leaders do? According to Pullen Principal JaNiece Chambers, they honor their word.

Chambers made a bargain with her students that if they did their best to get folks to sign up for the Kids Teaching Kids 21 Day Challenge, where elementary school students across Rockwall ISD are encouraged to eat a nutritious snack for 21 days, she would kiss a pig. And she did just that, kissing 6^th grader Vail Carter’s piglet named Mufette much to the delight of all in attendance.

Chambers said she was proud of all of her students for displaying their servant leadership abilities, and expressed her enthusiasm in getting to aid Helping Hands in its mission to feed the hungry in the county.

“Being servant leaders means so much in today’s world and developing the whole child is one of our campus cornerstones,” Chambers said. “We are excited to partner with Helping Hands on Students Serving Others projects as well other projects during the year.”

Story and photo by Austin Wells, Blue Ribbon News staff writer.

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