Walking into the West Leyden lunchroom you see a table, you see students handing out lotion, chapstick, and squishes for the others who stop by this table. What is this meant for? Well it is care week sponsored by SADD.For the past 3 years SADD has been in charge of letting the students of Leyden know that they are cared for. In the fall SADD is in charge of Red Ribbon Week where they decorate the school and hold activities such as dress up days for the students. They focus on keeping Leydens students away from drugs during Red Ribbon Week. However in the spring they are in charge of Care Week.
Care Week is a week where different activities are held in the lunch room to let the students show that they care for one another. It is also meant to show the students that the school cares about them. Mrs. Dewey, a sponsor of the club says, “So the club came up with the idea of “We Care Week”. We have pretty much done the same things every year: care for self, community, others, environment and Leyden cares for you.” This club has different notes, stickers, and self care items out during the lunch periods to let students share with others or grab something for themselves. Anyone can stop by whenever they want to pick something up or leave their mark on the shout out board that SADD puts up to let students leave notes for others to see as they pass by.
Throughout the week there are club members of SADD that sit at a table to try to get people to stop by and interact with the activities. They are in charge of letting others know about the activity for the day and how they can participate.They give up their lunch periods in order to try and share the care. One member, Jayden Moreno, said “ The table was nice to work at, I liked seeing all the students coming up and reading the cards we had there. It felt nice to give them out to people.” Another table volunteer, Naomi Flores, said “I enjoyed seeing everyone writing different things on the shout out board and it was very fun to use the microphone that Dewey gave us so that we can announce what we were doing.”
Not only does the care for the students happen at the tables, the club also hangs up posters all around the school for the students. These posters say things like “ You are special”, “You matter”, “You are important”, and “You are beautiful”. The club members stayed after school hanging these posters up so that they could surprise students as they walk into school the next day.
“ During We Care Week we wanted students to feel good about themselves and being part of the Leyden community,” said Dewey, ”It may be a little thing but SADD was hoping by putting signs around the school it would have a big impact on how students feel about themselves and Leyden. SADD wanted every student that walked the halls to feel good about themselves and proud they are a Leyden student.” SADD’s tradition of We Care Week will continue to let the students of Leyden know that they have a community that cares about them.
