For more than 10 years, leadership students at Meridian High School have organized the annual Winter Wishes event. This annual event gives students and staff an opportunity to make a wish for students of the high school and ends the Friday before winter break with gifts being distributed to students.

“Since so many of our students receive gifts yearly during Winter Wishes without performing the service that the leadership class does, I had hoped to provide all students the chance to give before getting,” said Meridian High School teacher Patrick Ames.

This inspired the creation of Give Before You Get. This initiative was started by the leadership class in December 2019. During Give Before You Get students and staff dedicate an hour of the school day to complete acts of service for the community.

Since 2019, Give Before You Get has grown. All students participate and staff participate by either implementing or hosting a service project. In order to provide enough opportunities for students, this year a mix of off campus and on campus service projects were made available.
These service projects ranged from preparing meals for Agape House, creating care backpacks for homeless teens, reading to elementary school students and playing with them at recess, writing letters to hospitalized children and healthcare workers, and singing holiday carols to residents at a local retirement home.

“Most people want to do good but don’t always know how or aren’t always given opportunities. Our Give Before You Get day met our students in this belief and was an unqualified success for an event even in its first year,” Ames said.

This year, Ames sent an invite to district personnel asking if there were any needs they had for this day of service. This resulted in a bus of students going to Irene Reither Elementary School for the day to play with kids at recess, read with students and help in the classroom.

Looking ahead Ames hopes this event grows even more.

“I would love for our community to be able to continue to support us in projects like Give Before You Get by allowing our students to support them through our commitment to service on this day in the future,” Ames said.