Twenty-one Ellison High School Junior ROTC cadets spent a day off from school Friday mopping floors, cleaning toilets, making beds and assembling laundry kits at a downtown shelter.
The three hours of service culminated a two-phase project that began with a clothes and goods drive to benefit the Friends in Crisis facility on Sprott Street in Killeen that is affiliated with Families in Crisis.
Several students said they were happy to delay their three-day weekend and didn’t even mind giving up time to study in order to assist those in need.
Retired Col. Quincy Norman, senior JROTC instructor at the school, joined his cadets, pushing a mop around the facility.
Two students set to lead the battalion next school year agreed the day of service was an important part of their JROTC training.
Jeremiah Helu, a junior set to be the Eagle Battalion commander next school year said he couldn’t think of a better way to spend a few hours.
“This is community service. This place is for abuse victims and people who are homeless and we wanted to get out here to help,” he said.
“I think exposing cadets to this helps to ground them. You have so much you could be doing on a weekend, but it doesn’t get much better than this.”
Students spread out through the building. They made beds in the sleeping quarters. They swept and moped, cleaned bathrooms, organized a closet and poured detergent into bags to assemble laundry kits.
Noah Perez, a sophomore, will be command sergeant major in the Ellison battalion next year.
“The point of today is to learn while giving back to the community,” he said. “We want to make sure people know there is kindness and hope in the world,” he said, noting that he and his peers were reminded of how fortunate they are to have a home and food and clothes.
“It grounds us in what we do and gives us something to work toward,” Perez said, explaining the foundational nature of service.
Killeen ISD photo albums: https://www.killeenisd.org/photos