Clubs within Bryant High School offer a variety of opportunities for students to volunteer within the community. Students can choose to either volunteer for an already set event or they can come up with their own community service event.
On Dec. 15, 2024, Beta Club is offering students and their families the opportunity to have a semi-professional photo shoot for free.
The event was organized by senior Lily Presley and it has been in the works ever since the 2023-2024 school year.
”I got the idea last year from the … Saline County Library,” Presley said. “I hadn’t heard anything about it this year, so I wanted to bring it to Bryant High School to help not just underprivileged families, but anybody who wanted to get pictures.”
Getting the event approved was a lengthy process. Presley continued pushing for the idea, and eventually Beta Club took her up on the event.
“[Getting the event planned] was really hard, I asked Beta Club and NHS to see if they wanted to pick it up and they both had interest last year, but nothing really came of it,” Presley Said. “But this year, I specifically asked Beta Club and I pushed really hard.”
After the Beta Club sponsors, assistant principals, and Principal Jason Hay approved the event, Presley began planning.
“We started setting up volunteers and picking the exact date,” Presley said. “[After that,] we made a flyer and a google form to fill out.”
Despite Presley’s efforts to get past the slow process of the approval of the event, she is faced with another slow process to get the event planned.
”It’s been kind of stressful, I keep asking for everything to be pushed out, but it’s a little bit slow to get through all the channels,” Presley said. “Then it’s also getting overshadowed by the Big Blue Market, which I just think is funny since I created that one, too.”
Even with a possible low turnout in sign ups, Presley is still glad to have given this opportunity to students.
”I’m a little bit worried that the turnout will be very small,” Presley said. “But I guess even if it’s very small, at least we can have [provided] service for some people.”
Even though the process has been long, Presley enjoys being able to plan things that follow her interests.
”I have a lot of varied interests, I have [an] interest in crochet, journaling, and stuff like that,” Presley said. “So I think it’s really fun to bring all of those interests into a project and unite a lot of people.”
Along with her passion, Presley’s primary reason for starting this event was to provide an opportunity for students.
”I love helping out and getting to provide an opportunity that I would have wanted,” Presley said. “I like bringing [something that I would want to do] so that I can share that experience with other people as well.”
