By Brianna Stephens
Rockcastle County Schools has a tradition of excellence and strives to create opportunities for learners in the school system to become leaders among their peers and in the community. Students in Rockcastle County High School’s JROTC program demonstrated just that after collecting around 400 pounds of clothing for Christian Appalachian Project’s (CAP) Grateful Threadz Thrift Store through a clothing drive at the start of the holiday season.
“To me, it’s amazing to see these students have a desire to be involved in the community and learn about how they can serve and help,” said Sherri Barnett, community coordinator for Grateful Threadz and CAP’s Grateful Bread Food Pantry. “We are very proud of them, and it means so much to us that these students are willing to step up and do what they do.”
The idea for the drive came when Cadet Battalion Command Sergeant Major Kelsey Coy wanted to find an opportunity for the program to give back to the community, especially around the holiday season.
“I wanted to find a way that JROTC could give back to and show support for our community. There are many needs in our community, and I wanted to find ways we could help,” Coy, a senior, said. “I started researching different things we could do for service. When I saw something about hosting a clothing drive, the first connection I thought of helping was Grateful Threadz.”
Coy was familiar with Grateful Threadz because of a long-standing partnership between Rockcastle County Schools and CAP. Over the years, McCoy and her classmates have had many service-learning opportunities at Grateful Threadz, which offers clothing and small household items. They have also had many opportunities to serve their own community at CAP’s Grateful Bread Food Pantry, which offers nutritious meals and special food programs to help meet the need for food in the community.
After reading more about the service opportunity, Coy quickly put together a plan for a one-week clothing drive and presented it to school administration the week after Thanksgiving.
“When she sent me an email asking to do it, I immediately said ‘yes,’” said J.D. Bussell, principal of Rockcastle County High School. “We are very proud of what our JROTC program has become. It is student-led and the sense of pride our students in that program have for what they do is unmatched. It doesn’t surprise me that the students wanted to do something like this because that’s who they are.”
Within a day, Coy put her plan into place for the clothing drive, which would last just over a week. By the end of the week, Coy said she was surprised to see more than 800 pieces, or 400 pounds of clothing, collected by her fellow cadets in a short amount of time.
“I was happy to see this idea was carried through and was successful in the end,” Coy said. “I am proud of the JROTC program for what we were able to do to help meet a need in our community.”
