Johnsonville Middle Jr. Beta Club
Donation protected
Johnsonville Middle School is located in a very rural corner of Florence County in South Carolina. Our school currently has three hundred eighty-seven students in grades five through eight. Sixty-five percent of our population presently qualify for free or reduced lunch. Although our resources are few, we are a hard-working community, and a whopping one hundred two of our students in grades six through eight are members of our chapter of the National Junior Beta Club.
The National Junior Beta Club was founded by Dr. John W. Harris in 1934. Beta is the second letter of the Greek alphabet, and "B" represents "bios" (the Greek word for life). Dr. Harris felt it was important for members to learn how to make a life for themselves. The Junior Beta Club members exemplify character, leadership, service, and achievement in their respective schools and communities.
Our club has competed in contests at the state convention in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina since 1998. Almost every year, we are invited to participate in competitions at the national convention. We have had three students elected by their peers at the state convention to serve as state officers. These officers have also run for national office. This June, the National Junior Beta Club Convention will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year our students will compete in Tower of Power, T-shirt Design, Group Talent Competitions, Arts and Crafts – Sculpture, and our newly elected State Vice President will run for national office. We are also volunteering to have a winning student and his parent from a neighboring school district travel and stay with us.
Thirty of the students who competed at the State Convention (and almost that many parents) have expressed interest in, and paid deposits towards, the enormous cost of this trip, which is $800 per person. Travel to and from Johnsonville, South Carolina to New Orleans, Louisiana on a chartered bus, hotel rooms, costumes, tours of the city, and meals are the major expenses we will incur.
We have already reserved our hotel rooms and each part of the trip has its own deadline for payment. Payments will be required as early as March.
The reasons this trip is so important to us are many and varied. Our students, from a town with only two traffic lights, will stand on the stage at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and perform in front of 10,000 of their peers from across the United States. They have spent countless hours learning to play instruments (bass and electric guitars, drums, keyboards, and reed instruments), composing and rehearsing dances, and making props. They have calculated how to engineer towers from drinking straws to support weight. And they have studied design and refined their own creative ideas for a drawing to be printed on our t-shirts that symbolizes what is good about themselves and how that relates to the National Junior Beta Club.
There is no doubt that when these intelligent, hard-working, and deserving children were born, each of their families made a commitment to give them every opportunity to learn as much as they could. Through the years, they have made the necessary sacrifices to provide the occasions they could. Help in offsetting the burden of this cost, while still allowing these children this opportunity would be so greatly appreciated. No school has students who are more talented or harder-working than Johnsonville Middle School. Please help us fund this chance for students; they would forever be grateful.
The National Junior Beta Club was founded by Dr. John W. Harris in 1934. Beta is the second letter of the Greek alphabet, and "B" represents "bios" (the Greek word for life). Dr. Harris felt it was important for members to learn how to make a life for themselves. The Junior Beta Club members exemplify character, leadership, service, and achievement in their respective schools and communities.
Our club has competed in contests at the state convention in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina since 1998. Almost every year, we are invited to participate in competitions at the national convention. We have had three students elected by their peers at the state convention to serve as state officers. These officers have also run for national office. This June, the National Junior Beta Club Convention will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year our students will compete in Tower of Power, T-shirt Design, Group Talent Competitions, Arts and Crafts – Sculpture, and our newly elected State Vice President will run for national office. We are also volunteering to have a winning student and his parent from a neighboring school district travel and stay with us.
Thirty of the students who competed at the State Convention (and almost that many parents) have expressed interest in, and paid deposits towards, the enormous cost of this trip, which is $800 per person. Travel to and from Johnsonville, South Carolina to New Orleans, Louisiana on a chartered bus, hotel rooms, costumes, tours of the city, and meals are the major expenses we will incur.
We have already reserved our hotel rooms and each part of the trip has its own deadline for payment. Payments will be required as early as March.
The reasons this trip is so important to us are many and varied. Our students, from a town with only two traffic lights, will stand on the stage at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and perform in front of 10,000 of their peers from across the United States. They have spent countless hours learning to play instruments (bass and electric guitars, drums, keyboards, and reed instruments), composing and rehearsing dances, and making props. They have calculated how to engineer towers from drinking straws to support weight. And they have studied design and refined their own creative ideas for a drawing to be printed on our t-shirts that symbolizes what is good about themselves and how that relates to the National Junior Beta Club.
There is no doubt that when these intelligent, hard-working, and deserving children were born, each of their families made a commitment to give them every opportunity to learn as much as they could. Through the years, they have made the necessary sacrifices to provide the occasions they could. Help in offsetting the burden of this cost, while still allowing these children this opportunity would be so greatly appreciated. No school has students who are more talented or harder-working than Johnsonville Middle School. Please help us fund this chance for students; they would forever be grateful.
Organizer
Janet Stuckey
Organizer
Johnsonville, SC