NEWTON GROVE — One project at a time, students at Hobbton Elementary School are making a difference in the world.
Inside his classroom, teacher Brent Rivenbark’s “You Will Change the World” board is filling up fast with pictures of children working to help others.
“The idea is to get kids motivated to do community service,” said Rivenbark, a fourth-grade educator. “They drive it and I just help out whenever they need me.”
Heily Avlia is one of those students. Her can food drive resulted in 1,000 items being collected for the project.
“I feel pretty good helping out because on TV, I saw that during the hurricane, a lot of people lost food and I just wanted to get their food back,” Avila said.
Avila and her classmate Alondra Villagran called local businesses for donations.
“They took that extra step to make some phone calls, so that was pretty neat,” Rivenbark said.
After helping with food collection, Villagran wanted to start another project — raising money for pet shelters. During a trip to Mexico, she saw a lot of malnourished dogs who needed a place to call home.
“I saw a lot of little dogs with skinny stomachs and I was feeling so sad for them,” Villagran said. “So I just wanted to help out a lot of pet shelters.”
HES student Emily Goodchild assisted with the food drive and steered a clothing drive.
“I want to help people that don’t have that much money to buy clothes,” Goodchild.
One of the first major projects was a toy drive in 2015, led by student Zayden Atkinson. It was a successful endeavor with donors collecting more than 300 toys to help needy children throughout Sampson County.
“It felt like I was wrapping toys forever,” Rivenbark said.
For the upcoming holiday season, Atkinson want to help more children, who face financial hardships. It’s something he loves to do.
“I’m glad to do it again so I can get more kids who may not have got (toys) last time,” Atkinson said. “Now they can have another chance to get some more toys this year.”
The community projects are a big undertaking for the students, but Rivenbark said the students are managing it well.
“It’s a lot of multitasking, but they’re making it work,” Rivenbark said. “I hope that this continues to grow and that more kids motivated by them and we can build on it the rest of this years and take that momentum into next year and do even more.”
In January, Rivenbark said students at the school will participate in the statewide Give Five-Read Five campaign, which helps students retain literacy skills in the summer.
For Rivenbark and other staff members, it’s an impressive to see young students are taking charge and making a difference one step at a time.
“I applaud that and it’s a beautiful thing,” he said.
Donations may be dropped off at Hobbton Elementary School, 12361 Hobbton Hwy., Newton Grove; Newton Grove Drug Co., 305 Weeks Circle, Newton Grove; and Bentonville Disciples of Christ Church, 8566 Devils Racetrack Road, Four Oaks.
