Just recently, students enrolled in Concord High School’s Leadership class worked extremely hard to brainstorm, plan, and follow through with a kindness project of their choosing. Junior Iyla Weeks project involved re-painting restroom stalls and decorating one of the girls’ restrooms. Senior Sidney Marshall is currently continuing a kindness project from two years ago that involves running a feminine hygiene drive.
When asked how and why Weeks came up with her idea, she explained, “I really wanted to create an aesthetic and positive environment for the girls here at Concord to get excited about.” She also explains that the restroom has looked the same for years and has become very boring and nasty-looking.
Weeks first brainstormed ideas for this project; once she came up with an idea, she asked for approval and was granted permission. Before she started the process, she did some research and made a Pinterest board to get an idea of what the restroom would look like. Finally, Weeks asked a couple of girls around the school if they liked the idea and design. Once they agreed, she got started. Weeks explains the process, “I originally thought this project would take a couple of days, but surprisingly, it only took about 6-7 hours. I also had some help, which made the process run a lot more smoothly. I started off with painting the stalls a super cute purple color along with an old rusted air vent.” Weeks then explains that after that, she started laying down contact paper on some of the shelves while others placed some cute decorations. Some delightful pictures were also stuck onto the wall to add to the aesthetic.
Senior Jazmine Breining speaks on the new renovations to the girls’ restroom: “The restroom looks so cute and nice now, which is super exciting! Last year, there were a couple of issues with people trashing the restroom, but now that it looks so much nicer, I think people will start to appreciate the hard work put into it and will hopefully not continue the same behavior as last year.”
In the corner of the restroom, a plastic basket filled with feminine hygiene products is located on the shelf. This basket is a part of Sidney Marshall’s feminine hygiene drive. Marshall has been working extremely hard to get the word out for her drive. Outside Mrs. Sigman’s and the Media Center, there are two cardboard drop boxes where students and staff can donate feminine hygiene products such as pads, tampons, spray deodorant, lotion, or any other products they think could be useful. Marshall then comes through and gathers all these products and distributes them into the plastic baskets in the girls’ restroom for students to use if they need them.
When asked why Marshall wanted to do this, she explained, “These types of products can be very expensive, but women need them. Since they are expensive, some women don’t always have the extra money to pay for them. So, my goal is to provide these things so that if anyone needs them, they are more than welcome to use them. Marshall also would like to add, “After spring break, there will be a community drop box in the high school office during school hours. So with that, community members are welcome to donate as well!”
Overall, these two students did a fantastic job with their projects, so if you see either of them, make sure to tell them good job and don’t forget to donate!
