Over time, projects develop, service plans are altered, and new ideas are formed for the Service Challenge Projects. By getting “Plugged In” at the 2013 Youth Leadership Seminar, many students decided that it was time for them to “stand up” and make a difference in their community. The second annual “Giving Tuesday” is on December 3, 2013, and with the holiday season quickly approaching, we are very proud that our students give back throughout the entire year and not just during the “giving season.”
Turpin High School was inspired to create 9-1-1 for Fun, where their seniors played a basketball game against local members of the Fire and Police units. Following the game, there were sandwiches
provided by Chick-fil-A, and a chance for students and community members to hear stories from members of each unit and to give thanks for all of their hard work. This was AMF’s second school visit on November 26th and we could not be more inspired by the students at Turpin who came out to support such a great cause.
In 2012, Anderson High School also hosted a basketball game to raise money and awareness for Pelizaeus-Merzbacker Disease, a rare, degenerative central nervous system disorder in which coordination, motor abilities, and intellectual function deteriorates. Anderson is sticking with the sports theme and decided that their project for this year will be a community dodgeball event to raise community spirits and to provide funds for Mitch’s Mission, a non-profit organization that gives scholarships to send children with cancer to summer camp.
Norwood High School also continued with a similar theme from their project idea from last year, through supporting the children in the community by planning to host a science-outreach event for the elementary students of their school district. This project is an extension of their 2012 project where they focused on cleaning up and planting flowers along Mill Creek, as part of the restoration project.
Oyler High School focused on making their community better in 2012 through their efforts to sell calendars to raise money to adopt two families for the Christmas season. They took family portraits and presented these photos at a community dinner. This year, Oyler has decided to focus their efforts inward and hold an anti-bullying/violence week to help stop this issue within the walls of the high school.
Our Service Challenge Winner last year was Bracken County High School with their “It Can Wait!” campaign to discourage students from distracted driving. They reached over 1500 students with the campaign’s events and the weeklong activities included themed 
days to focus on different types of distracted driving, a real car that had been involved in a distracted driving accident resulting in a fatality, and texting while driving simulators. Bracken continued their desire to make a difference and have developed their new project for 2013 of “Spread the word to End the Word” (to eliminate the word retard), which will take place December 9th-13th. Bracken will be partnering with Pine Ridge Pine Village Homes for much of the week to bring mentally and physically challenged individuals and their workers to do a presentation for the students. There will be stations that are set up in the gym to simulate handicaps, such as being blindfolded, wheel chair obstacle course, ear muffs for deafness, etc. Finally, there will be a pledge table set up for students to sign up that they can “End the Word.”
Whether a school has developed a new idea for their Service Challenge or found ways to expand past projects, as long as students are getting “Plugged In” to their community, the world will continue to be touched by inspirational students looking to make a lasting impact.
Becky Griesmer
Impact Intern
#AMFChallenge