Okemos High Action Club outlines wide volunteer programs, mental‑health campaign
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Summary
Students from Okemos High School described the Action (A.C.H.I.N.) club’s volunteer work across schools, senior centers and food banks and promoted the annual Sock Out Suicide mental‑health awareness event on May 16.
Three students and their advisor presented the Action Club’s recent volunteer record to the board and highlighted the club’s mental-health awareness campaign, Sock Out Suicide.
The lede: Students from Okemos High School said Action (A.C.H.I.N.: All Coming Together to Improve Our Neighborhoods) runs tutoring, food‑service volunteering, senior outreach and seasonal recycling drives and has grown to about 500 members after a post-COVID rebuild.
Nut graf: The students asked the board to note both day-to-day community service — delivering meals and tutoring, performing for senior centers, staffing local races — and an annual, schoolwide mental-health visibility campaign that asks participants to wear brightly colored socks on a designated day in May.
Student presenters (identified in the meeting by first name) described regular activities: tutoring in middle schools, weekly visits to Brookdale and the Meridian Senior Center to teach technology and perform, food preparation and service at the Greater Lansing Food Bank and St. Luke’s Dream Soup Kitchen, and recycling drives in fall and spring. The club said membership rose from roughly 276 in 2022 to more than 500 this year.
The group also outlined Sock Out Suicide, a student‑led campaign in its eighth year that encourages students and community members to wear colorful socks on May 16 to prompt conversations about mental health and to direct people to resources such as the 988 crisis line. The students said they partner with Playmakers, Eli’s Project, Ellie’s Place and Meridian Cares for the campaign.
Trustees thanked the students and noted Action Club’s ongoing support for district events such as the Protect the Pack fundraiser and other community activities. “It’s really fitting that you are doing the Sock Out Suicide activity, given that May is the month to celebrate mental-health awareness,” Trustee Doxey said.
Ending: Trustees invited the students to continue partnering with district events in June and thanked the club’s advisor for sustaining a large, student-run volunteer organization.
