Cambridge City School District uses the hashtag #CambridgeCares on its social media outlets to show that the people who work for CCSD care about students and their families. It is also used to demonstrate that the community cares about the school district and that our students care about their community.
Girl Scout Troop 8153, along with the Intermediate School and other businesses in the community, recently proved the Cambridge Cares hashtag is more than just a social media trick.
The troop, consisting of 22 girls from Cambridge, Meadowbrook, Maysville, and John Glenn, has been learning about kindness, empathy, and thinking of others this year. Kayla Shaddix and CIS teacher Crystal Dyer lead the troop.
The girls are and want to continue being involved in helping the community. To that end, the troop decided to collect and donate food items to the food pantry at Cambridge Intermediate School. Many of the girls in the troop attend school at CIS and wanted to help their classmates.
Of course, Principal Laurie Goggin, the driving force behind the use of the PAX Good Behavior Game which encourages students to be kind and respectful to others, supported the idea.
“The girls were wonderful, and the school truly appreciates the PAX our students showed in bringing peace, productivity, health and happiness to others in the building,” Goggin said.
The food pantry at CIS was started four years ago for the purpose of providing a snack for students who may become hungry during the school day. The pantry is available for the entire student population so that any student in need of some extra food items for home or a snack during the day can easily obtain those items.
The pantry also provides hygiene items like toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, soap, and shampoo to any student in need. Many of those items were donated by Colgate-Palmolive. In addition, the Cambridge Kiwanis Club, Cambridge VFW, and Allen Hunter-State Farm all made financial donations and the Harvest House donated an entire truck load of various school supplies.
Any student can stop in the office and ask for a snack and one of the office staff members will take the student to our pantry and let them select items for a snack and/or some extra food to take home, no questions asked.
The donations from the Girl Scouts and others bolster the supply at the pantry and create a sense of pride in the school and community. It’s not just a hashtag, Cambridge really does care.