Everyone has heard about the horrible earthquake that has hit Haiti and left devastation in its wake. We have all seen the many relief efforts to help the devastated people of Haiti. Many concerts have been held, led by the Hope 4 Haiti concert headlined by Jay-Z, Beyonce, Rihanna, Keith Urban, Alicia Keyes, and Taylor Swift. Well, we here at ACA cannot be excluded from that list as many of us have contributed to the relief needed in Haiti.

            Here at ACA, we pride ourselves in trying to help the community, but we not only help the local community, we also have been helping the Haiti relief efforts. So far, we have had two dress down days on non-dress down days, which students donated five dollars to wear their duds. Also, classes had a penny war, in which each first period class filled a container with pennies to see who could raise the most money. In addition to the dress down days and the penny wars, a cookout was held during a home basketball game and money raised was donated to the relief efforts. When asked about the cookout, Mr. Grubb, an English teacher at ACA stated, “It was a very fun and positive atmosphere.” In total, we were able to raise $1,229.78 all of which will be donated to the American Red Cross. 

            As a whole, ACA came together as a family and worked together to raise the money to help those less fortunate in Haiti. The ACA family is grateful to everyone who contributed to these events and to all the staff and students that donated their time and efforts.  

At ACA, National Honors Society (NHS) and Student Council (STUCO) are involved with almost all the student activities circulating throughout the school. The clubs are led by their restless leader, Mrs. Shawn Garrelts our beloved Science Teacher, who when asked why she gives so much to both clubs states, “I like to be involved in our school, and its important for me to show students how to be valuable citizens of their communities.” 

When students and faculty talk about Mrs. Garrelts, the most common question that is asked is, “how does she have time for family?” Well, I asked Mrs. Garrelts and here is what she thinks about balancing her time. “I don’t know, my family is the most important thing to me, so we make time in the evenings and weekends to make sure we are spending quality time together.”   When asked what activities NHS and STUCO are promoting for the upcoming months, Mrs. Garrelts gave us the following response, “we have many functions coming up. There is the school dance for diabetes, Prom, spring blood drive, a visit to St. Mary’s Alliance West Side Food Bank, and spring inductions for NHS and NJHS (National Junior Honor Society).”

When asked how she finds time to not only run a classroom, several clubs, and a family, Mrs. Garrelts had a perfect response, “Sleep is overrated.”