In honor of Patriot Day this year, Randolph-Macon Academy spent the afternoon of September 11th in service projects throughout the local area. The entire student body–over 300 students–and more than 30 adult supervisors joined together to take on 19 different projects.
Projects included weeding, raking, spreading grass seed, and mulching at locations such as Andy Guest Shenandoah River State Park, St. Luke’s Community Clinic, and the Northern Virginia 4-H Center. The students did the same at the 3rd Battle of Winchester, where they also re-set fences. At the Warren County Fairgrounds, students updated the information on the marquee, picked up trash, and moved all the aluminum canopy frames to winter storage. The R-MA varsity soccer team worked on cleaning up around Kendrick Lane, which is located just outside the Middle School gate.
The chorus and color guard participated in a 9/11 Ceremony at Greenwood Mill Elementary School in Winchester, and another group cleaned out flower beds at Spring Arbor and planted fall flowers.
R-MA students were also found painting at The Warren County Senior Center, delivering flower bud vases to Hidden Springs Assisted Living, staining the fence at The Phoenix Project, and sweeping the parking lot at Calvary Episcopal Church. Still another group painted bowls at
The Kiln Doctor downtown; the bowls will be used in the annual fundraiser for the House for Hope. The projects also included work at several individuals’ homes, an on-campus campaign to write letters to soldiers, and a walk to collect acorns for Blue Ridge Wildlife Center.
One group of students took baked items to sell outside of Rural King, with the remainder being sold in a teacher’s classroom the next day. In total, the bake sale raised $328.92 for the United Methodist Commission on Relief, to go towards the relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Harvey. This is in addition to funds raised last week; in fact, one of the projects on Monday was using last week’s donations to purchase the supplies for relief buckets and put the buckets together.
“With 2017 being our 125th Anniversary, we wanted to honor Patriot Day in a different way this year,” said Celeste Brooks, R-MA’s director of public relations. “Everyone really enjoyed getting out into the community and helping others. I’ve heard several requests from our teachers, staff and students to do it again.”