By Staff
Last Wednesday, Mount Zion Missionary Church hosted nearly 100 guests from around the county; many of them developmentally disabled adults, at a holiday dinner sponsored by Woodlands Behavioral Healthcare.
They were treated to a home- cooked meal of turkey, ham and all the trimmings, followed by a visit from a jolly man in a red suit passing out presents.
Eleven senior boy and girl basketball players from Dowagiac Union High School joined volunteers from Mount Zion, helping prepare and serve the food, and clean-up afterwards.
They also interacted with the guests.
"We kept them happy," said senior Dre Kiser. "It was good to be with the team, and everyone enjoyed it."
This is the seventh year students have helped at the banquet and the second year that senior basketball players have taken on this special service project.
"I don't know what we'd do without them," said Faye Clark from Mt. Zion.
While many of the students had no experience working in this type of setting, "They jumped right in like they'd been doing it forever."
Dowagiac schools take pride in being "data driven," and indeed the National Center for Education Statistics reports that students who participate in volunteering through their schools have stronger ties to school, peers and the community, a better understanding of the conditions other people face and a higher exhibition of positive social behaviors.
Senior Tanner Melvin was more to the point.
"It was just nice helping those people. A lot of them said thank you, but you could see just by looking at their faces they all enjoyed it."