Kingwood Park High School students participate in community service day

Kingwood Park High School freshman Taylor Delaney waxes a truck during her Day of Service at Houston Fire Station 101.

Kingwood Park High School students participated in a day of service event Monday, Nov. 5.

According to a school press release, a total of 400 freshman, 100 junior and senior mentors, 30 faculty members and 10 parent volunteers teamed up to work at more than 17 different areas in Houston, where they spent three hours in the morning doing volunteer work that included rebuilding, repainting, serving lunch and caring for rescue animals.

Volunteers from Kingwood Park High School contributed 1,620 man hours during the event.

"K-Park Day of Service is an opportunity for all students to go out and serve in some way at different facilities in the Houston area. Service learning as a whole is just something we believe in, and we want to build that relationship with people and organizations in the community," said Carla Atkinson, the service learning coordinator at KPHS, in a press release.

At the beginning of the day, all student participants met in a morning assembly to discuss the expectations for the day before departing to the various sites.

Freshman Marissa Ward spent her morning at a no-kill animal protection center.

"This is so much fun. They're (the animals) so energetic and sweet. I wish I could adopt them all," she said in the release.

After the event was over, participants gathered for an afternoon assembly where they had the opportunity to share their experiences and speak about the time spent in service to others.

"This is just one of our core values at KHS, to develop the whole child and teach our students to be good citizens, to give back to our communities. What we heard from the students made all the time and planning and logistics to work it out worth it," associate principal Brian Johnson said in the release.

A number of participants expressed interest in continuing to volunteer in the community, beyond the school's day of service.

"All of us did such amazing things. Beautiful doesn't begin to describe it. I hope with all my heart that it doesn't stop here but keeps going. Speaking for myself, this was one of the best experiences I have ever had as a human being," freshman Brandon Broussard said in the release.