CHS's third annual Community Service Fair connects Kodiaks with local non-profit organizations

Interact Club members Ben Jerome, Jonas Johnson, Caden Peterson, Cody Salmon, Jesper Koornstra, Even Ragsdale, Breigh Ragsdale, Cora Landgraf, Elle Lundgren, Thayer Robison, Ryann Johnson, and Kaylee Radach take a brief pause from their community service work beautifying the CHS campus to pose for a picture. Photo credit: Roselyn Robison

Every school year Cascade High School hosts a community service fair where different clubs and organizations from town come on campus hoping to connect Kodiak students with valuable community service opportunities.  

Organizations that attended this year’s event included Waste Loop, Wenatchee River Institute, Leavenworth Winter Sports Club, Leavenworth Soccer Club, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, and PD/Alpine Lakes Elementary PTO. 

This event is intended to help Kodiak students earn community service hours, gain valuable experience and make important connections with local community organizations. Organizations that attended this year’s event included Waste Loop, Wenatchee River Institute, Leavenworth Winter Sports Club, Leavenworth Soccer Club, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, and PD/Alpine Lakes Elementary PTO. 

This year’s iteration of the event was held on October 8 during Flex.  Leadership students helped to encourage attendance by creating a five-stamp card where students could earn stickers from local non-profit organizations as they visited, learned, and signed up for service experiences. 

This year's fair was set up by Leadership students Jaxon Groby (12), Grace Redman (12), Isabelle Zapalowski (10) and Todd Lindsay (10). Amy Rieke, CHS Career Counselor, has helped to facilitate this event for three years and did so again this year.   

“This annual event is an important part of the culture at Cascade High School.  Giving back to the community that does so much to support CHS is an important part of what it means to be a Kodiak,” said Leadership teacher and Interact advisor Ms. Roselyn Robison. 

For a month before the fair, Zapalowski and Lindsay worked with Rieke to communicate with local non-profits and create a short lesson on community service to be delivered during Flex classes.  This lesson reviewed what community service is, why a student would want to earn community service hours, and the commendations available for those who excel at serving their community.  

A few days before the fair, Leadership worked together to create signs for each of the groups that had RSVP’d and gather all the necessary supplies.  

“One of the big struggles we had setting up for this event was not knowing [which] organizations were actually going to be able to show up, so Leadership didn't know what signs to make or how many tables we needed until the very final hour,” said Jackson Groby (12). 

Despite the struggles, the event itself was incredibly successful and well-attended by both local organizations and CHS students. 

As a senior, Savanna Rowles (12) is pressed on time to gather community service hours. “I chose to sign up for Art in the Park, Icicle Creek Center for the Arts, Leavenworth Soccer Club, Alpine Lakes/PD Parent Teacher Organization, and Waste Loop, for more chances to get community service hours during my senior year,” said Rowles.  Rowles also ended up winning the prize drawing and earning herself a coffee from the CHS student store.