Casady's Community Service-Learning Group of students led the volunteer efforts at the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. Volunteers included 67 teens throughout the day. They packed 21,468 pounds of food, which included 82 cases of crackers, 46 cases of cereal, 86 cases of snacks, 46 cases of cookies, and 199 packaged meals for the Food-4-Kids Backpack Program. This equaled a grand total of 17,890 equivalent meals. 

Casady's Youth Acting in the Community (YAC Service Learning Group) and Youth LEADOKCasady (Leaders Engaging Across Differences) welcomed teens from Casady Upper, Middle and Lower Division, Mercy School Institute, Heritage Hall High School, US Grant High School, Edmond Santa Fe, Norman North, and Oklahoma School of Science and Math to help in the effort.  Casady YAC/Youth LEADOKCasady hosts were teens, Johnny Lee'17 and Sidney Jones'15.  Kat Reynolds'18 facilitated the pizza lunch- a generous donation from UD Principal, Dr. Jon Powell- and the delivery of the prizes for the "Disney Contest."  The pizza was ordered by YAC Freshman Chair, Kira, who was unable to attend the day of service.  Kat also developed a playlist of songs which were played during working shifts, at breaks and lunch. 



 The prizes of the Disney Contest were $15 gift Sonic cards.  

The judge of the contest was the Food Bank Volunteer Coordinator, Mr. Tyler Griffin. The funding for the cards came from Casady YAC monies raised during Fall Fest provided by YAC Treasurer, Taylor Burrow'15

 Other small groups @ the Food Bank on the MLK Day of Service who served with the Cyclone teams were: an OU fraternity, an African American Sorority, a group of volunteers from UCO, a group of home school children and a group of Americorps.  Special thanks to Coach Jim Bonfiglio and Mrs. Carmen Clay for bringing friends and family to volunteer on MLK Day 2015 @ the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.

Natalie Hugos'18 and Tara Ramakrishnan'18 facilitated the reflective component of the day. Natalie asked the question: "What are your goals and hopes for the day?"  Participants responded on post-it notes:  To put an end to famine, eat pizza, I would like to help more people, to help others in need, to feed the children who do not have food without school, to help those in need, less people will be hungry, save a life, pack food, to have one less family be hungry, Y.B. was here, get a lot of food packed, to serve in my community, to help someone I do not know, get a lot of food packed, packed food, make sure a child would not go hungry, help a child in need, to help fight hunger in the community, to feed at least 100 people, help however I can, to feed people, give food, do what I can, to ensure a future for promising Okies.

Tara asked the question: "How did your work impact the community?"  Participants responded in post-it notes placed on a big sign made by Mrs. Thompson, LD art teacher that said:  YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!.  The responses were:  Helping children of Oklahoma, feeding Oklahomans, gave about 5 tons worth of food, help a child grow, feed the children, packed Oreos!.  We helped give food to those in need, Gave Food!

Pictures of the day were taken by YAC Junior Chair and STUCO Rep, Dylan Dobson'16, Carmen Clay'74, and Shannon Presti, YLOKC CEO.

Afternoon Shift at the Food Bank on MLK Day National Day of Service 9/19/2015
Casady YAC, Youth LEADOKCasady, Mercy School Institute, YLOKCMercy, Heritag Hall High School
Americorps, not in the picture HOME SCHOOL OKC - Taking tour of Food Bank.

Photos by Shannon Presti, YLOKC CEO and Director of Teen Initiatives of the YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City

Footloose Rehearsals on MLK Day 2015 @ Casady Schoool:  Jessica Greene'15, YAC Co-President and member of the Footloose Cast reported that for  8 hours a group of 20 Cyclones rehearsed songs and dances for the upcoming performance of Footloose.  The YAC Footloose Cyclones' goal is to advocate for the arts in OKC schools.  Performers will invite viewers of all ages to the performances.  There will be a special performance for the Special Care children.  Elderly residents of nearby Independent Living facilities are also going to be invited and hosted by Casady YAC members.  Date and time TBA

Why Bother with the Arts? By Professor Carol on Jan 29, 2015 07:26 am Böttcher, The Music Lesson (1860) There are compelling reasons to learn about the arts, and we discuss a lot of them at the Circle of Scholars. I was listening to Andrew Pudewa, as I often do, and latched onto something he said: You can’t get something out of a brain that isn’t in there to begin with. This is similar to what people like to say about computers: garbage in, garbage out. You can’t expect a computer to refine your data. If you feed in junk data, the computer will churn out junk results. Now, what’s true about computers isn’t necessarily true for humans, but in this case I think it is. The arts are an immensely rich source of good data. Figuring out how to perceive and analyze a painting, a theatrical monologue, or a piece by Brahms puts “something” real into the brain—a lot of something! The arts fill our brains with challenging ideas, our hearts with emotion, and our souls with depth and beauty. Wouldn’t it be nice if more of that were being churned out by our culture? And it’s not hard to do this. Kids (or you, for that matter) don’t have to play an instrument, dance, act, or paint to be part of this richness. Nor do you have to be talented, super smart, or financially privileged to do this. You just have to take the first step of wanting to learn. Let’s fill minds with the challenge and beauty found in the arts. It’s a grand journey. The post Why Bother with the Arts? appeared first on Professor Carol.