The FHN Mentors went on a community service field trip to help at a conference for professionals about effectiveness in serving children at Calvary Church. It was hosted by Community Council on Oct. 9. The group of 12 student volunteers had a number of various responsibilities that helped keep things running smoothly at the conference.

“We helped hand things out, and I greeted people in the morning by opening the door,” junior Jenna Gehricke said.

Each volunteer was assigned a role to do at a meeting a few days before the field trip. Some roles they had include opening the door, greeting people, handing out snacks and setting things up. While the volunteers were there to help, they also had a chance to listen in on some of the talks given by the speakers.

“It went really well,” Mentor sponsor Kristen Johnson said. “It was well organized and the students really stepped up and helped.”

The Mentors program has volunteered at this conference for the past three years, but this year something way out of the ordinary occurred leaving a random take away from their service trip for everyone. While the students were helping clean things up at the end of the day, someone noticed a small snake in the handle of a bag.

“Everyone thought it was very weird and random to find a snake there, we were all trying to figure out a way to get it out, but we were also really freaked out,” junior Payton Stephenson said.

While the snake sighting was a scary surprise, the rest of the day was a fun way to earn community service hours and students to spend time with fellow club members.

“I would go again next year for sure, everything was put together really nicely and made my part easy and fun,” Gehricke said.