Their group may have formed by accident, but their volunteer work is always done with a purpose.
Nearly three years ago Vicki Olson, St. Joseph Parish School sixth grade teacher, organized an informational meeting for older students who would volunteer to help work childcare during Home and School meetings.
"They interpreted that meeting completely differently, they said, 'we want to start a volunteer group in Prescott'," Olson said. "I wasn't going to say no to them, it was exciting. It was completely driven by them, I ended up in it as a default."
The official group was named "Chip In For Others." Their title was created with a little help from the Thesaurus after finding words similar to "volunteer"-"chip in" was one synonym.
Recently, group T-shirts have become available thanks to a generous donor who purchased the shirts designed by fellow member and senior Chloe Rohl.
Although the group currently consists of girls about 12-18 years old who have gone to or are currently enrolled in St. Joseph's Parish School, the Chip In For Others members want their group to be open to the wider community for all ages and genders.
"It's a community group, it's not just for girls or just for kids at St. Joe's," Rohl said. "That's why I used the circle and the bricks to say we're building a better community together. The arrow is for expanding and moving forward. The color choices were typical Prescott colors and we wanted to relate it back to the community."
Those students who kickstarted the conversation about founding a community volunteer group are now seniors in high school about to graduate.
A few of the seniors, like Rohl and Morgan Chesney, have found the group to be beneficial to their post-high school goals.
Chesney has included examples of her projects done with Chip-In For Others in her college applications. Rohl said she will be pursuing non-profit and business in college not solely because of her experience with the group, but the group has impacted her perspective of volunteer work.
"It's really cool to be a part of something bigger than yourself. This makes you open your eyes and see the needs of the community. It's really cool for us as kids to make a difference and also give back," Chesney said.
The seniors, along with other students as young as sixth and seventh graders, have dedicated their time to raising money by group babysitting, supporting the Prescott Area Food Pantry, participating in Feed My Starving Children efforts and other community-central missions.
The younger members are looking forward to stepping into more responsibility in the group after the seniors graduate.
"I'm really proud of what we've done so far. I'm excited for what's coming up," Lili Campfield-Huth, an eighth grader at St. Joseph Parish School, said.
Their next big project will happen May 30, whenthe group will decorate plant pots with nursing home residents at Prescott Nursing and Rehab Community. The pots will then be planted with succulents to decorate residents' rooms.
The group has not established any social media accounts, but requests for more information may be sent to their email at chipinforothers@gmail.com
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Thank you for taking part in our commenting section. We want this platform to be a safe and inclusive community where you can freely share ideas and opinions. Comments that are racist, hateful, sexist or attack others won’t be allowed. Just keep it clean. Do these things or you could be banned:
• Don’t name-call and attack other commenters. If you’d be in hot water for saying it in public, then don’t say it here.
• Don’t spam us.
• Don’t attack our journalists.
Let’s make this a platform that is educational, enjoyable and insightful.
Email questions to mthorud@orourkemediagroup.com.