Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The S.O.A.R. Club at Jefferson Somerset decided they wanted to do something special for the four-legged officers at the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO).
Currently, the JCSO has two K9 officers, Magnum and Otis. When the students learned that those two K9s were serving and protecting the county every day without the protection of a bulletproof vest – they knew right away which project they wanted to undertake and fund.
Katrina Snider, the Exceptional Student Education teacher at Jefferson Somerset Middle-High, said that the initiative belonged entirely to her students.
"This was entirely on [the students]," said Snider. "They chose what they wanted to do and did everything on their own."
The students reached out and contacted Jefferson County Sheriff Mac McNeill to inquire about the cost of bulletproof vests for the four-legged officers.
When they received a cost estimate, the students decided raising 'just enough' wasn't enough.
"They told me, 'No, Ms. Snider...I think we need to do more than that,'" said Katrina Snider, adding that her students chose to go above and beyond and make sure that the JCSO would have more than enough to cover the cost of the K9 vests.
So while a quality K9 vest is priced at a little over $200 each, her students chose to round the cost up and raise an even $300.
The fundraising was a slow process that required a lot of hard work and entrepreneurship out of the S.O.A.R. students.
According to S.O.A.R. club member Ladarious Jones, he and his fellow classmates raised funds through the sales of buttons and other trinkets which they designed and created.
S.O.A.R., Jones adds, stands for Successful Occupations Are Reachable.
The good deed, while significant for the JCSO's K9s, also taught the young entrepreneurs the art of perfecting their sales pitch, creating a marketable product and pursuing customers – all skills worth having in the modern workplace.
Button by button, the S.O.A.R. Club slowly made their way to their mark, and on Friday, Nov. 8, Sheriff McNeill, Deputy McCoy and K9 Magnum were invited to the Jefferson Somerset lobby – it was time to present the check.
The large check, summing up a tidy $300, was handed over to Sheriff McNeill as each S.O.A.R student beamed with pride in their accomplishments.
"The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office would like to thank Ms. Katrina Snider and all the students in the Jefferson Somerset S.O.A.R. Club for their generous donation and helping fund the purchase of a protective vest for our K9 partner, Magnum," writes Sheriff McNeill. "The support of our community is humbling and greatly appreciated."
While the S.O.A.R. Club has entirely funded K9 Magnum's vest, they are still working on raising funds for K9 Otis; Katrina Snider says that her class has plans to open and manage a school shop, with all funds going towards the additional $300 that is needed to buy another vest for the local four-legged hero.
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