Principal Natalie McDonough and the Student Advisory Council are heading an initiative to bring a Blessings Box to the bus stop outside of the school for people who may need help with food, personal items or other needed items. McDonough was inspired by a video on facebook of a boy that started a Blessings Box in the Kansas City community and thought that it would be something good for the community to take on.

“I had been thinking for a while that it would be great for us to do a service project together,” McDonough said. “It would be something fun but it would also help somebody.”

With the public bus stop within walking distance of the school, McDonough thought it would be the perfect place to implement the Blessings Box. This way those who need items from the Blessings Box, can pick them up as they wait for the bus. This particular bus stop is not a covered one, just a sign adjacent to the sidewalk, so they plan to stock it, in addition to other items, with umbrellas to brace the rains while waiting for the bus.

“It is not too hard to do once it is there, it is just something we could probably once a month and check in,” McDonough said. “We have a public bus stop up there and so I thought it would kinda be a great location because people get on and off the bus there.”

The Blessings Box will include a range of many different items such as nonperishable foodstuffs, soap, deodorant, gloves and umbrellas. It will be compartmentalized into sections for the different categories of blessing that the box will contain. What items will be stocked will be based on whatever the students feel there is a need that they feel needs to be filled.

“It is the giving season,” Senior Student Advisory Council member Lilly Concannon said. “And it is getting cold, so gloves and socks could be helpful to put in the box for people who maybe don’t have those things.”

As for the box itself, math teacher Mac McGory has volunteered to help construct it. There are also plans for an initiative from Mission Director Anne Riggs to help get students involved in the process of making the box. Students are looking forward to getting involved in the process of making the box itself, according to junior student advisory council member Brie Bowes.

“It looks better if it is student-produced rather than faculty produced,” Bowes said. “It doesn’t really have that big of an impact but I think that it is more special to our school if the students made the box, if the students decorated the box, if the students stocked the box, I think it is a cool student based project.”