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ENLARGE
Bears Action squad teams up with Fellowship of the Rockies church and Wal-Mart to deliver Holiday Food Bags. Pictured from left to right are Caleb Lenard, Katie Greenman, Josh Ziegler, Caleb Ziegler, Lyndsay Clark and Jayne LeDosquet.
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ENLARGE
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Josh Kaplan, top, and Jeff Coombs help paint a hallway at the Veteran's home last fall.
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RIFLE — As a senior at Rifle High School this year, Caleb Ziegler needed to think of what he would do for his senior seminar project. He wanted it to be something special — something to help the community. Something to leave a legacy and continue long after he had graduated.
“I tried to think of how I could leave something of myself — something cool to leave behind,” the 18-year-old Ziegler said. “I talked to my dad about it and how we could have a positive impact on Rifle High School. The National Honor Society is supposed to be a community service-type group, but it's made up of some of the busiest people at Rifle High School. It's hard to get everyone together.”
His dad, Dave Ziegler, also has a special fondness for Rifle High School as a physics and chemistry teacher at the school and a basketball and soccer coach.
They come up with the “Bears ACTION Squad” — a service organization that connects students with the community, using both their minds and their bodies.
The acronym of ACTION stands for “Achieving Character Through Impacting Other's Needs.”
“It started as part of (Caleb's) senior project,” said Dave, who now sponsors the group. “I felt I was kind of missing out when it came to the primary reasons that we get into coaching and the students get into participating in sports and extra-curricular activities — things like learning sacrifice, teamwork, commitment to one another and to a cause greater than self and community service.”
The 20-hour senior project is due the first semester of the school year, but the Zieglers wanted the project to last longer than that.
Josh McCathern is a sophomore at Rifle High School and a member of the ACTION Squad. Even though he's not yet up for a senior project, he wanted to be part of the group anyway.
“I'm the youngest (member) as a sophomore, the others are juniors and seniors, but it's open to anyone who wants to join,” McCathern said. “I do it because I enjoy it. All the members of the Action Squad are friends and yet we help out at the same time.”
Since it's inception at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, the Action Squad has done numerous projects, including landscaping at a local church; serving as hosts/hostesses and caterers at a fundraiser for the Pregnancy Resource Center; picked up trash along the highway; painted a hallway at the Colorado State Veteran's Nursing Home; provided monthly childcare for a women's organization in Rifle; and helped with an RHS food drive; helped deliver holiday baskets of food at Christmas.
Most recently the Action Squad organized, cook and run a benefit dinner on Feb. 4 for RHS alumni Juan and Brenda Cornejo who were in a serious car accident last Thanksgiving. The group raised $800 to help the couple with their medical bills. Brenda remains in a coma. The dinner was held in between basketball games and was made possible through donations of tortillas, meat and condiments.
“It was put together by Action Group members and their families and the basketball players and their families,” Caleb said.
Beginning in March the Action Group is putting together “Caregiver Kits” to AIDS workers in Third World countries in conjunction with World Vision, an international Christian relief, development and advocacy organization founded in the United States in 1950 which works with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice.
“World Vision provides all the materials that are needed and then sends them to people who want to sponsor the production and put them together,” Caleb said.
The cost is $28 per package for the materials and the postage. The Action Squad is hoping to send 100 packages out and is trying to raise $2,800 to do so. The group is available to do odd jobs and is accepting donations in exchange.
With about 12 members so far, the Action Squad is hoping to gain more members and keep the group going for years to come.
“It's a cool thing if we can get more students excited about it and let it grow,” Caleb said. We want to get the word out. The feedback so far has been pretty cool, especially when people come to us and say we need your help. We've had a lot of thank-you's going around.”
For more information about the Action Squad, to get some help or to make a donation toward the AIDS Care Kit project, contact Caleb Ziegler at calebz2007@yahoo.com or Dave Ziegler at 665-7761.
“I tried to think of how I could leave something of myself — something cool to leave behind,” the 18-year-old Ziegler said. “I talked to my dad about it and how we could have a positive impact on Rifle High School. The National Honor Society is supposed to be a community service-type group, but it's made up of some of the busiest people at Rifle High School. It's hard to get everyone together.”
His dad, Dave Ziegler, also has a special fondness for Rifle High School as a physics and chemistry teacher at the school and a basketball and soccer coach.
They come up with the “Bears ACTION Squad” — a service organization that connects students with the community, using both their minds and their bodies.
The acronym of ACTION stands for “Achieving Character Through Impacting Other's Needs.”
“It started as part of (Caleb's) senior project,” said Dave, who now sponsors the group. “I felt I was kind of missing out when it came to the primary reasons that we get into coaching and the students get into participating in sports and extra-curricular activities — things like learning sacrifice, teamwork, commitment to one another and to a cause greater than self and community service.”
The 20-hour senior project is due the first semester of the school year, but the Zieglers wanted the project to last longer than that.
Josh McCathern is a sophomore at Rifle High School and a member of the ACTION Squad. Even though he's not yet up for a senior project, he wanted to be part of the group anyway.
“I'm the youngest (member) as a sophomore, the others are juniors and seniors, but it's open to anyone who wants to join,” McCathern said. “I do it because I enjoy it. All the members of the Action Squad are friends and yet we help out at the same time.”
Since it's inception at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, the Action Squad has done numerous projects, including landscaping at a local church; serving as hosts/hostesses and caterers at a fundraiser for the Pregnancy Resource Center; picked up trash along the highway; painted a hallway at the Colorado State Veteran's Nursing Home; provided monthly childcare for a women's organization in Rifle; and helped with an RHS food drive; helped deliver holiday baskets of food at Christmas.
Most recently the Action Squad organized, cook and run a benefit dinner on Feb. 4 for RHS alumni Juan and Brenda Cornejo who were in a serious car accident last Thanksgiving. The group raised $800 to help the couple with their medical bills. Brenda remains in a coma. The dinner was held in between basketball games and was made possible through donations of tortillas, meat and condiments.
“It was put together by Action Group members and their families and the basketball players and their families,” Caleb said.
Beginning in March the Action Group is putting together “Caregiver Kits” to AIDS workers in Third World countries in conjunction with World Vision, an international Christian relief, development and advocacy organization founded in the United States in 1950 which works with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice.
“World Vision provides all the materials that are needed and then sends them to people who want to sponsor the production and put them together,” Caleb said.
The cost is $28 per package for the materials and the postage. The Action Squad is hoping to send 100 packages out and is trying to raise $2,800 to do so. The group is available to do odd jobs and is accepting donations in exchange.
With about 12 members so far, the Action Squad is hoping to gain more members and keep the group going for years to come.
“It's a cool thing if we can get more students excited about it and let it grow,” Caleb said. We want to get the word out. The feedback so far has been pretty cool, especially when people come to us and say we need your help. We've had a lot of thank-you's going around.”
For more information about the Action Squad, to get some help or to make a donation toward the AIDS Care Kit project, contact Caleb Ziegler at calebz2007@yahoo.com or Dave Ziegler at 665-7761.
