Bulldogs Care Days instills life skills

Shattuck said, “Most RCS students have seemed to gain joy out of participating and also teaches them that it does not take money or resources to help others and make others happy.” Shattuck likes to say “you don’t need resources to plant seeds in others.”

Melinda Goodson, RCS high school athletic director, participates in every BDCD. Her class cleans the gym, the weight room and the locker rooms. The students learn responsibility and cleaning up after themselves. Goodson said “this is my way to give back to our custodians”. 

Taylor Bowen, a ninth and 10th grade English teacher, tries along with her students to give to the people. Bowen’s students in the past have made bags and cards for nursing homes, created an end of year supply basket for third grade classes and have written letters to and made cards to veterans.

Bowen said, “I’ve loved hearing about the revamping of the school library this year, and that is where I got the idea for our most recent project which was creating a “free little library.” Bowen decided to have her students create the free little library because teachers have been discussing ways to get students more involved in reading. Bowen said, “I noticed that there was a free little library at Grace United Methodist Church across the street from RCS, but I wanted students to create one for the community.” 

She split the class in three groups, one group was in charge of painting and decorating the library box, the second group gathered the donated books and researched places to plant the library box and the third group was in charge of organizing the books by genre. The “free little library” idea is to take a book and leave a book. “It is a great way to share books within the community, try out new reading genres, and meet new people in the community as a result,”  Bowen said. When she is planning a BDCD project, Bowen said, “I try to get my students into the real world.” The goal for Bowen’s projects are to teach students life skills, time management, collaboration, and problem-solving while also benefiting the community. Bowen said, “These are all skills that students will need when they enter the workforce and continue their education once they leave RCS.” She added, “I love how students work on BDCD days because I see a side of them that I don’t always see inside the classroom.”