On Tuesday, Nov. 4, Kearney High School students fanned out across the Kearney and Holt communities for a Day of Service, hundreds of Bulldogs giving their time, energy and heart to the neighbors who make this place home. From senior centers to city streets, from school playgrounds to local nonprofits, our students showed what it means to lead with service.

Teams visited Westbrook Care Center, Oak Pointe Senior Living and the Kearney Senior Center, where they played games, joined a line dance, painted nails, and delivered hand-written cards. Crews picked up litter, refreshed playgrounds, and marked veterans’ plots at Lion’s Park, Jesse James Park, Mt. Olivet Cemetery, and around town with Kearney Parks & Recreation and the City of Kearney, work that included painting fire hydrants. Volunteers organized shelves and built “blizzard bag” snack kits at the Kearney Food Pantry, carried groceries for shoppers at Price Chopper and cleaned up at Centerville Cottages. Others rolled up their sleeves at the Kearney Enrichment Council (Old Firehouse), SPARK Academy, Northland Therapeutic Riding Center and BITS—Better in the Saddle, helping prepare facilities for the season ahead.

On campus, students turned classrooms into mini-workshops, assembling “Happy Kits” and W.E. Care Kits for Children’s Mercy Hospital, building hygiene kits for local families, decorating cookies for the Kearney Fire Department, crafting paracord lanyards for Friends of the Troops, and constructing busy boards and other projects for the Kearney Early Education Center. They also pitched in at Kearney Elementary, Hawthorne, Dogwood, and Southview, sprucing up school grounds and lending a hand with younger Bulldogs.

What stood out all day was the way students encouraged one another, met new people and took pride in doing the small things well. That’s what it means to be a Bulldog! Thank you to our community partners for welcoming our kids, to our staff leaders and chaperones for guiding the work, and to everyone who helped coordinate logistics behind the scenes. This is learning that lasts: skills, empathy and a habit of helping.

Please enjoy the photos from the day, and thank you for supporting the kind of education that reaches beyond the classroom.