Caring for Community: Middle School Service

Part of engaging our students’ hearts and minds is enabling them with opportunities to care for their community in different ways.

The annual Walk-a-thon allows students to raise funds for The Caring Place, a local organization that provides services to Cincinnati neighborhoods, and Leja Bulela, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian relief to people in the Kasai-Oriental Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Over the course of several weeks, sixth through eighth graders walked thousands of laps around the upper field track and collectively raised $25,856.06. The five year total amounts to $115,291.42.

At the end of the last day of school, the students who raised the most money from their grade had the opportunity to pie a Middle School teacher of their choice, and compete in a student vs. teachers dodgeball game.

The Middle School also cared for its community through the return of the Locks for Leonard Hair Fair. Honoring the late Middle School PE teacher Beth Leonard, who passed away from cancer in 2014, the Middle School asked for hair donations that would be sent to Children With Hair Loss, an organization that creates wigs for children undergoing cancer treatment or suffering from autoimmune diseases.

In October, the Middle School kicked off the hair fair with a raffle allowing one lucky student, eighth grader Zoya Samawi, to cut PE teacher Hannah Hanley’s two-year hair growth during an assembly.

Donations were collected until May 1, and a total of 16 members of the Seven Hills community donated their hair. Participants included Middle School students, faculty and staff, and a Middle School parent.

Thank you to everyone who donated!