Junior Jilkiah Bryant is leading a community service project to involve MSMS students with the elderly of the Golden Triangle. Titled “Operation Elderly Appreciation,” the name reflects what the project is about: appreciation.

Along with spending time with the elderly, each volunteer will decorate a Christmas card for their assigned person, or one large card will be decorated and presented to the home.

“I need to find out how many elderly people are in the home and then for each elderly person there will be an MSMS student, so for everyone person there will be one card. If it doesn’t work out that way, then we’re going to do one big card and donate it to every senior,” stated Bryant.  

The card(s) will be distributed around Christmas time, shortly before students are dismissed for winter break.

The project currently has about 20 signees. No more volunteers will be taken for the project as the deadline to register was Nov. 3.  

Bryant described the areas that will be covered in the project.

“We’re not just going to go to one elderly home. It will be mostly elderly homes surrounding this area, so Clay County, Noxubee County, Oktibbeha County. We’re going to try to touch every county surrounding Columbus that we can. I’m going to do one residence home for each county.”

The group was supposed to go to an elderly home in Starkville on Nov. 14, but due to limited transportation, many would not have been able to participate. The target date has been pushed back to Dec. 1.

The sponsor for the project is Latoya Bledsoe, Goen Hall Director. Bledsoe talked about the importance of volunteering in community projects like this one.

“I like to be able to get the students engaged in the community, so they can see what MSMS is about. You would be amazed how people who live here in Columbus don’t even know the school exists. They know it by MUW, but they don’t know that it is a high school, so this can also be a good recruitment tool as well.”

Junior volunteer Liz Huynh commented on what she is looking forward to the most in the project.

“I feel like I will obtain experience through this volunteering. We get to choose an area that we’re interested in to volunteer. I chose an area that relates to medicine, so I will be able to shadow a physician and learn more about medicine. Also, I believe that older people have a lot of experience to pass down, and I can’t wait to learn life lessons from them. However, the main thing that I look forward to is the ability to do meaningful actions to the community,” Huynh said.

Bryant stated her reason for coming up with the project is how much she likes to give back.

“I just like giving back. I like the idea of doing something for the greater good,” Bryant stated.

The project is trying to plan more service projects between now and Christmas for the students who signed up to volunteer their time.