Hope
NATIONAL MONTH OF
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Spread the sunshine and bring hope to those around you. Give to those who are in need, be kind to all, lend a helping hand without asking, send a card to those who are isolated, lift the spirits of someone who is struggling or fearful, compliment someone just because, any gesture, big or small, can make all the difference. Be the start of something good!
From left, Unatego Middle School Student Council members Hailey Byam, Isaac Strutton and Abbey Bailey stand with their finished Easter cards in early March.
From left, Unatego Middle School Student Council members Lucy Bailey, Miley Strutton, Raegan Goodspeed and Payton Zenner stand with their finished Easter cards in early March.
Unatego middle schoolers’ cards aim to brighten nursing home residents’ Easter By Allison Collins Contributing Writer
Members of the Unatego Middle School Student Council are making Easter brighter for area senior citizens. In mid-March, the roughly 12-person student council made 120 Easter cards for residents of the A.O. Fox Nursing Home in Oneonta. Student council adviser and Unatego teacher Cheryl Nages said the students, in grades six through eight, were eager to spread extra cheer this year. “We’ve been meeting all virtually … and I was talking to the kids about doing a community service project, because every year we do something,” she said. “One of the students asked for Easter cards, because her great-grandmother is in (A.O. Fox Nursing Home). “I called and asked, and they said ‘absolutely’ and there are 120 residents, which meant about a dozen (cards) for each student, but they all said they wanted to do it,” Nages continued.
“All of us have had a hard time in the past year or so, and some of the senior citizens have been hit really hard and haven’t been able to see family or have lost friends due to COVID. We thought, maybe this Easter they might not be able to see anyone or family, and maybe a card would help give one little ounce of happiness and then maybe it won’t be so bad.” Abbey Bailey, Unatego eighth-grader and middle school student council president
“They brought them home and filled them out and some added artwork inside. We’re working on two or three different things at once – we did Valentine’s Day gifts to every middle school student, we did a Christmas card thing – so this was just another in a series of projects we’ve been doing.” Plans for the card drive, Nages noted, began in December 2020. Abbey Bailey, a Unatego eighth-grad-
er and president of the middle school student council, said knowing the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on local senior citizens motivated students. “All of us have had a hard time in the past year or so, and some of the senior citizens have been hit really hard and haven’t been able to see family or have lost friends due to COVID,” she said. “We thought, maybe this Easter they might not be able to see anyone or fam-
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ily, and maybe a card would help give one little ounce of happiness and then maybe it won’t be so bad.” Abbey, 13, who has served on student council “every single year, starting in second grade,” said projects such as the card drive underscore the group’s mission. “We always try and do a few community service projects a year, whether it’s for the school or a food drive or giving M&Ms to every single middle schooler (for Valentine’s Day),” she said. “This is just something we shoot for.” Nages, too, said such projects help instill values in and out of school. “We try to do at least one community service project a year,” she said, “and part of my goal for student council is to not only help them to become better leaders in school, but to show them they can have an impact outside of school.” Nages said she was planning to deliver the finished Easter cards to A.O. Fox Nursing Home in late March.