Math club is more than numbers
Published 6:02 pm Thursday, January 4, 2018
- MATH HEROES: Members attending the nursing home were (left to right) Courtney Boyd, Hailey Hite-Wilson, Kaila Lietz, Caleb Petty, Madison Hudson, Zania Keyes, Monaya Rodman, LaQuisha Woolard, Sarah Petty (Secretary), Jairo Juarez Leyva, Luke Matthews, I’ana Harper, Zoe Harding, Morgan Dixon, Mallory Nobles, Jaqwan Cobb, Michelle Rocha Padilla, Briana Baker, and Kyle McSweeney. (Tina Petty)
There are many different options for clubs in high school, depending on a student’s interest. One such club is doing double duty, solving quadratic equations one moment and performing a community service the next.
Nineteen members of the Southside High School Math Club did precisely that in December, when they visited Willow Manor Nursing Home in Chocowinity, bringing with them gifts, handmade Christmas cards and some live music.
Accompanied on guitar by Southside senior Caleb Petty and junior Madison Hudson, and on percussion by facility member Jay Petty, math club members sang Christmas carols to the Willow Manor residents.
“Residents joined in on the fun by singing with the club members, and one resident even joined them on guitar,” math club advisor Tina Petty wrote in a press release.
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JOINING IN: Southside students Caleb Petty and Madison Hudson accompanied Southside High School Math Club members on guitar during a December visit to Willow Manor Nursing Home to deliver gifts, cards and a little Christmas cheer.
The community service doesn’t just arise around Christmas, however. Under the guidance of Petty and co-advisor Lisa Johnson, math club members are also collecting pop tops from soda cans, soup cans, pet food and more to benefit the Ronald McDonald House of Greenville.
“All the schools on the south side of the river have joined forces to raise money for the families of sick children by serving as drop off locations for the pop tabs,” Petty stated, adding that those locations are Southside High School, Chocowinity Middle School, Chocowinity Primary School and S.W. Snowden School.
In the spring, the club will participate in “Sport a Shirt, Share a Night,” an annual Ronald McDonald House fundraiser — a T-shirt sale for which the benefits offset the cost of a family’s stay in Ronald McDonald houses. Club members will also be collecting wish-list items to donate and making door decorations for the cause.