Signs Up! greets students throughout the county

CARES conducted Signs Up! at all of the middle schools and junior and senior high schools in the county during August. About 30 volunteers plus three staff members participated.

Signs Up! is part of the You’ve Got This! initiative that CARES conducts to remind adolescents that they are capable and resilient, and that a variety of support exists to help them. This school year the program is focused on seventh-graders.

Across the board, from grade six through 12, and for several years running, Dubois County students report that they don’t feel noticed or appreciated by community members. “We hope activities like this one help students realize that community members see them and care about them,” CARES Executive Director Hilary Duncan commented.

Here are some glimpses of the Signs Up! activity.

Southridge High School Principal Greg Gogel and Assistant Principal Greg Werner had upbeat music playing through the outdoor speakers as youth walked toward the building on the first day of school. High-schoolers and middle-schoolers were welcomed back with high-fives and encouraging words.

School Resource Officer Andy Hammack, Huntingburg Mayor Neil Elkins and his wife, Susan, and a couple of downtown merchants joined in on the fun, greeting students and cheering them on. Senior William Dubon, a CARES Youth Leadership Team member, stopped by for a hug and smile from Program Director Candy Neal. 

 “Which one of you is Doug?” asked the approaching Northeast Dubois senior who had been sent on the search by a friend. Doug Stephenson handed his sign off to fellow volunteer and CARES board member John Siebert beside him and went to take a photo of the group of senior girls gathered for Senior Sunrise. The girls offered the sign-holders their remaining doughnuts. The senior boys, not to be outdone, offered the last of their grilled bacon.

A junior high student saw her former religion teacher, Clara Fromme, among the volunteers at the bus drop-off and wanted to hold a sign too. Fromme snapped a photo of the girl, flanked by friends, sharing the message, “You Matter.” Volunteer Luckie Hopf grabbed her granddaughter Coralynn Poppe in a hug. Coralynn, a junior, also is a member of the youth leadership team.

When board member Nancy Eckerle reported to Jasper High School at a little after 7 a.m., she brought with her a school bell used by her husband’s grandmother – known as Rose Fink before getting married and becoming Rose Eckerle – when she taught school in the early 1900s. Nancy rang the bell frequently during the 45 minutes that she wished the students a great school year. Choir and AP psychology teacher Emma Mundy passed by and shared that a student gave her a cowbell one year to keep order, but she’s never had to use it.

“She had told her mom (my) class was loud, and I’m not very loud,” Emma shared later. “So her mom got it (for me).”

At Jasper Middle School, the rain stopped a little before 7 a.m., and city librarians Christine Howard and Venita Lucchi, Tiffanie Arthur and Ashley Lueken were on hand with Candy.

The first buses arrived at 7:10. Most of the students on the buses looked tired and bored, and the majority were quiet. Some students stopped to read the signs, and one said he had come up because he thought it was a protest. He and several others thanked the sign-holders for being there.

Ashley’s stepdaughter, eighth-grader Ali, joined the group after getting off her bus; she held a sign and greeted many of the students by name.

When a sign-holder remarked that it was going to be a great day, one student mumbled, “I doubt it.”

“Just wait and see!” Candy countered.

When the school day got under way at 8 a.m., the volunteers stuck the encouraging signs in the ground at both entrances of the school to continue wishing students well for a few weeks into the school year.

On the day volunteers visited Forest Park Junior-Senior High School, students were still pulling into the parking lot behind the school as 8 o’clock drew nearer and nearer. The volunteers became nervous for the students.

Do they have to be in their classroom at 8? one asked.

Yes, answered guidance counselor Audrey Fleck who stood with the group.

A bell rang. Several students were still walking across Vienna Drive between the parking lot and the school. The volunteers commented to each other about the students’ nonchalance before wishing the students a great school year.

Can they go straight to their classroom after entering the building? another volunteer asked hopefully.

Probably not, Audrey said, as this school year all phones have to be stashed in lockers before first period.

By the time the last student got to the door, it had automatically locked for the day. Fleck had to unlock it for him.

The volunteers lamented that he would have to report to the office for his tardiness.