On February 2nd, 2018 Orion Junior High 9th grade Honor Society Officers carried out and planned a special breakfast to give back to the community.
Those invited were: The Police Departments of North Ogden, Pleasant View, and Harrisville as well as the North View Fire Department. Anyone in these respective offices were also invited to attend.
Additionally, Mayor Tait from Harrisville and Mayor Call from Pleasant View were there along with Executive Director of Secondary Schools, Art Hansen and Secondary Supervisor, Bill Grilz.
As each member of the community entered in the library they were warmly greeted with an applause, a handshake and cheers from each of the students.
Amy Hall, librarian and Honor Society Advisor at Orion Junior High said, “We wanted to honor the service men/women in our community because they give so much to our school.”
Honor Society Student Officer, Lexie, opened the event by singing, beautifully, the National Anthem.
Breakfast burritos from Bella’s Fresh Mexican Grill were served as all the guests and students mingled among each other and shared conversation.
Three cities serve the needs of Orion Junior High: Pleasant View, Harrisville, and North Ogden.
Hall also says, “Each one of these communities provide service people who help our school with safety and medical calls. We thought it was time to let them know how much we appreciate them.”
Fire Chief, Dave Wade, said, “We really appreciate this. Especially kids like this who have the idea to bring us over…it’s great!”
Mayor Call of Pleasant View said, “It’s really neat for these kids to be exposed to the human aspect of the police and fire department…we’re just humans too.”
The Honor Society focuses primarily on giving service and according to Hall, “This seemed like a perfect event to organize.”
Also, included in this event were the Student Body Officers and 9th Grade Class Officers.
Max Jackson, Police Chief for Harrisville City said, “This is the first time they’ve (the students) done something like this and they’ve surely gone all out.”
President of the Honor Society, Abby Bartholomew, was selected to stand and speak to the community members. “I love being a Titan…I want to thank each and every one of you. Every activity, every concert, every play, every dance, every game, every track meet, every day we are able to come to school because great people like you are keeping our school and community safe.”
Bartholomew particularly touched on the school resource officers saying, “These officers have become part of our school. We are grateful for their kind and caring attitudes that make our school a better place.”
Principal Chris Earnest took some time to comment saying, “This breakfast is just a tiny token of our appreciation for you. We appreciate knowing you’re close by and how quickly you respond to our school. You are setting a great example for our kids.”
Earnest asked the question to the service men and women, “How can we serve you?”
She says, “We are hitting hard with character education. These are amazing students and they go above and beyond. We want our kids to be even better people than we are right now.”
Honor Society and Student Body Officers were asked what it meant to them to host these special community members at their school:
Sierra said, “It’s amazing we get a change to honor them because, as students, we don’t get a lot of chances to show we care.”
Shawn said, “Officer Gammell personally helped me with family problems.”
“Honor Society gives us an opportunity to serve those around us,” said Eliza.
Another student, Daisy, said, “I like being able to serve and go on field trips and read with the kids.”
Amber Hodges, Student Government Advisor and English teacher at Orion also gave a huge hand in putting this event together.
She says, “These kids want to feel included, have fun and keep it real. We are really hoping to make this breakfast an annual occurrence! I know the students LOVED it!”
