Members of Hamilton High School Junior Optimist Club, with help from the National Honor Society and Student Council, met in November to pack 125 shoe boxes with items that were shipped to children in South America and Africa.
Junior Optimist Molly Hubred, a senior, spearheaded Hamilton’s involvement in Operation Christmas Child which provides children with shoe boxes filled with clothing, school supplies, hygiene products and toys. It is a project of Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief organization.
Teachers throughout the high school had large boxes in their classrooms for two weeks that students filled with donated items. Junior Optimists, National Honor Society and Student Council members then packed individual shoe boxes after school with a variety of items to be given to children affected by war, poverty, natural disaster, famine and disease.
The Junior Optimists is Hamilton’s newest club and is associated with the adult Optimist Club of Sussex, Lisbon, Lannon and Butler, which provided pizza at the pack-the-van event and chipped in for shipping costs associated with the project.
Optimist President Diane Matuszak welcomed the new student group and congratulated them for forming their club.
“The Optimist Club experience will undoubtedly develop your hidden talents and skills and will prepare you to be future community leaders, here in your community, or where ever your feet land you after graduation,” Matuszak said.
Hamilton communication arts teacher Debbie Figueroa is advisor to the Junior Optimist Club.
A video with more photos from the event is at: https://youtu.be/rMG0k3Ryk20