JUNIOR HIGH STUDENT COUNCIL HAD BUSY YEAR

The Jackson Junior High School student council had a very busy year.

"This year we tried out several new projects," said the student council's president, Justin Gibbs.

The year was filled with dances, service projects and special events sponsored by the junior high's 20-member council.

The student council actually started working together at school registration. In late May the Student Council sponsored the Back to School Dance.

The "Bears for Boo Boos" project was the council's first service project undertaken. "Bears for Boo Boos" is a project in conjunction with the Jackson Police Department where students brought in stuffed animals for police to give to children involved in accidents.

"We collected over 200 stuffed animals," said Gibbs.

The student council also took an active role to promote the bond issue to add onto the junior high school.

"We wrote letters to the editors and gave building tours to members of the community," said Gibbs. "We were not forced to actively support the bond issue, but several of the members and myself saw that we could do something to help."

Student council members were on hand at all of the open houses at the junior high school to hand out information about the bond issue.

"On behalf of my fellow student council members, I would like to thank the community of Jackson for supporting the bond issue," said Gibbs.

In early November the entire student council attended the District Student Council Convention in Farmington.

"We got several ideas from other area student councils," said Gibbs.

Also in November, the student council sponsored its annual canned food drive. Local businesses donated coupons that were used as incentives to get students to bring in cans. The canned food drive was a huge success and more than 2,000 cans were donated to the Jackson Food Pantry.

On Dec. 8, the student council sponsored the Christmas dance with the theme of "White Christmas."

After returning from Christmas break, the student council started in with preparations for the Mardi Gras dance. The student council also set up concession stands at two track meets sponsored by Jackson.

This year marked the first year the junior high school had a Spirit Week.

"Spirit Week was a huge project that we undertook this year," said Gibbs. "We had the idea of doing something that would promote school spirit, give back to the community, and be fun all at the same time."

Indeed, Spirit Week did all of those things and more. During Spirit Week, each day had a different theme -- Hat Day, Country Day, Decade Day. A coin roll where donations were collected in coins and rolled in a certain time frame was held on Wednesday of that week, and on Friday the council sponsored a Spirit Dance and free Spirit Lunch for students and faculty.

The money raised during Spirit Week went to the World War II Veterans Memorial Fund in Washington, D.C.

"We had just finished studying World War II in our history classes, and we wanted to show the veterans that we appreciated the sacrifices that they had made for our country," said Gibbs.

During the course of the week more than $2,000 was raised for the memorial.

A week after school was out, council members finally had a chance to slow down and have a good time at the annual lock-in. Parents were treated to pizza to say thank you for their help throughout the year. After the parents left, council members stayed up all night playing games, watching movies and signing yearbooks.

"The lock-in is always a lot of fun," commented Gibbs.

The council has several "thank yous" that they would like to extend to the community.

"We really need to thank the community of Jackson for always supporting us in whatever we did," said Gibbs.

The council also wants to say thank you to all of the students and teachers at the junior high, as well as principals, Lukens and Parham.

"Mr. Parham and Mr. Lukens were great in helping us have a successful year," said Gibbs, is also quick to note the role played by the student council sponsors.

"Mr. Mabuce and Mr. Bruns are wonderful sponsors," said Gibbs. "They were always there to help us in any way."