17 Dec 2011 Caring Cats make impact on school, community

by Donna Lampkin Stephens

A club originally started to help others has turned out to be a blessing for more than just the recipients.

Since its birth in 2005, the Caring Cats Club of Conway High’s West Campus has become one of the school’s most popular extracurricular activities. It’s a service group that brings together all segments of the student body – athletes, cheerleaders, students in Advanced Placement classes as well as those in special education – anyone who wants to be involved.

And while its roll has included up to 250 students, Cheryl Daniels, a special education teacher and one of the club’s sponsors, said there was a base of “100 who work their tails off.”

“It’s a huge number,” she said. “It’s my passion.”

She said the volunteer group filled a need.

“It helps those that need help and gives those kids that are willing to help an avenue to do that,” she said. “Most kids want to help. With most people, it’s inborn, but sometimes they don’t know where to help and what to do, and this gives them an avenue to do those things.”

The club has its roots in the Conway School District’s popular Angel Paws holiday program, which provides gifts to students whose families might not have the means to do so otherwise. Daniels said in 2000, she and her husband, Steve, were facing the first Christmas after both their fathers died, and they wanted to fill the holes in their hearts by helping to make Christmas more special for others.

Angel Paws is similar to the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree, in which those in need have a Christmas wish list and become “angels” for volunteers who provide those wishes. Originally, Angel Paws provided clothing, shoes and other items, but Daniels said they had found it easier not to have to deal with clothing sizes, so now they do more “fun stuff” – bicycles, dolls, backpacks, footballs, games, gloves, hats, etc.

After a few years, as the Angel Paws program grew, more CHS students wanted to get involved. Daniels remembered Leigh Counts, among others, who said, “We want to do what you do, so let’s make it an official club. Let’s do this all the time.”

The Angel Paws wish lists are broken down so that everyone who wants to can participate – they don’t have to spring for a larger item such as a bicycle.

“Kids can’t do that, so we have things like socks and coloring books on the list so everybody can be a part,” Daniels said.

The Caring Cats hold fundraisers for community service projects to benefit those in need. Among their main philanthropic efforts are supplying turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas to the Neighborhood Youth Foundation, buying tennis shoes for elementary students in physical education classes and buying supplies for Conway Cradle Care. There are also annual events. Daniels is excited about a new one, the American Wheelchair Mission, which helps fund wheelchairs for people in need all over the world. That project will get much of the Caring Cats’ focus this year.

Over the years, the Caring Cats have held food drives and collected books for elementary students. But one of the major tenets of the club is providing mentors for some special education students who might not otherwise integrate into the student body.

Daniels’ classroom offers Community-Based Instruction for about 10 students, including some who are non-verbal and non-mobile. Some Caring Cats work in her classroom as student helpers.

“We take our class to the prom every year,” Daniels said. “Those Caring Cat kids danced with them; some of them went out to eat with them. My class is one of the most popular classes at school; everybody knows them because those Caring Cat kids are in my classroom all the time, and they fall in love with them.”

She said the Caring Cats had helped to change the culture of the school.

“They’ve helped our school and our school district see what great lessons we can learn from kids with special needs – and how much fun they are,” she said.

Brooke Ballard, a Caring Cat who graduated in May and is now playing soccer for the University of Central Arkansas, said the club had changed her life. She said she planned to major in writing or journalism and eventually work with people with special needs.

“When I was in ninth grade, I saw a lot of those kids always standing by themselves, and I wanted to be a part of their lives and help them do things normal kids do,” she said. “I took them into normal classes, helped them make new friends, helped them feel like they’re part of the school.”

She worked as a student helper in Daniels’ classroom during her time at CHS.

“I guess I came into it hoping to change their lives, but in the end they changed mine,” Ballard said. “They gave me a different outlook. It made me want to do something like that in college. Kind of my dream job would be to open a special ed clinic for them and help them have as normal a life as possible.”

Daniels said the group decided to forego its end-of-the-year field trip in order to help with tornado relief in Vilonia.

“We had football players, cheerleaders, the most popular kids in the school and the ones who would never know anybody because they sit by themselves in the cafeteria, and they were all working side-by-side,” she said.

Daniels, who is assisted as club sponsor by teacher Shirley Williamson and paraprofessionals Wvonne Bradden and Rhonda Travis, said the effect of having students such as Ballard, whom she called “an absolute jewel,” was huge.

“It snowballs on you,” she said. “You get those kids, and their friends say, ‘I want to go in there, too.’ Used to, we’d have to ask who wants to be a (classroom) helper, but now we’ve got too many. Everybody wants to be in there.”

The club meets a couple of times a month, at lunch or before or after school, to decide on a project, then goes to work on it.

Daniels said it requires a lot of commitment.

“It’s a club that anybody can be a part of,” she said. “You don’t have to be anything but just have the desire to be involved in a group and to do something for other people.”