Wednesday’s rain might have put a damper on the Perry High School Homecoming parade, but it did not stop the many PHS students engaged in activities around town on the annual Volunteer Day.
Of all the goings on during Homecoming week, none brings the students more fully into the community outside the school than the Volunteer Day outreach activities. Nearly all PHS students participate in the once-a-year exercise in giving back.
The brainchild of retired PHS language arts instructor Linda Kaufman, Volunteer Day emphasizes tidying up the grounds around all three schools and in other public and private spaces around town.
Activities vary from year to year, with clean up focused on the school yards and also the grounds of the Perry Public Library grounds, McCreary Community Building and Wiese Park, with a group of young people also picking up litter along the Raccoon River Valley Trail and Iowa Highway 141.
PHS students have worked with the Perry Historic Preservation Commission to repair veterans’ medallions in Violet Hill Cemetery and worked with Habitat for Humanity to spruce up home sites in Perry.
Other volunteer activities include visiting the residents at Perry’s assisted living and long-term care facilities, joining in pet care and pet washing, tidying the grounds at Violet Hill cemetery and other duties around the various school buildings.
