Key Club gathers ribbons, bells, and faux flowers to surprise the Life Skills students with homemade mums.
Every year students sport his or her mums during school on the day of the homecoming game to show school spirit. After attending the Texas-Oklahoma district meeting in Dallas, Edeline Ong, District 24S Lieutenant Governor for Key Club, thought it was a good idea to make homecoming mums for the Life Skills students on campus.
“I wanted to make the special education students a part of the school,” Ong said.
With the leftover funds from the previous year, Key Club financed for 10 mums and seven garters.
“I went to Michaels and bought a lot of supplies,” Ong said. “One of the ladies who worked there heard my story and offered me half off for the pre-made mums.”
After Ong announced the mum-making opportunity on Key Club’s official Facebook page many members rushed to get a spot within a few hours.
“This whole experience has been really fun but at the same time very time consuming because I had to meet with volunteers to tell them the procedures, hand them the supplies, and then get it [the mum] back from them,” Ong said. “It was super time consuming but very, very, very rewarding.”
Sophomore Ksneia Vlassova said the volunteer opportunity was an enjoyable experience and plans to volunteer with Key Club more in the future.
“When I started making the garters with my friend Emily, I thought we were going to make the worst ones ever because there was a hot glue gun everywhere and it was super messy,” Vlassova said. “Emily even burned herself with the hot glue gun. But in the end it turned out pretty good. I plan on staying in Key Club through the years in high school and volunteer more and more every year.”
With an abundance of supplies left, Ong made seven mums consecutively and added the final touches before handing the mums to the students.
“By the end of the night my back and shoulders were aching,” Ong said.
After all the mums were finalized, volunteers were given the opportunity to personally hand his or her final product to a student on Oct. 31.
“It was rewarding to see my hard work turn into a smile when they received my mum,” senior Natalie Pelayo said.
Life Skills teacher Wayne Johnson appreciates Key Club for supporting the special education students.
“It makes them feel like they are apart of the regular general population,” Johnson said. “It also shows what wonderful students we have, that think of other people beyond themselves. We feel very honored to be supported by other people. Its really nice to know that our students think about our kids.”