Gibson Southern’s Sunshine Society has new requirements for the Sweetheart dance. The requirements changed from community service hours to a point system for the Sunshine members to attend the Sweetheart Dance.
Sunshine Society Sponsor Kendra Barrett has been involved with Sunshine for ten years, and this year decided to make the change.
“When I started, it was strictly just community service,” Barrett said. “I have been incorporating both until this year.”
While before this year Sunshine was mainly community service, there was a time period beforehand where it was a point system.
“Way back when I was in high school, because I went to school here, it was more of the point system that I do now,” Barrett said. “That’s kind of why I changed it.”
This new change to the requirements allows for different opportunities for the members to be involved with, rather than just other outside community service projects.
“I think it was a good change because it holds the members more accountable,” Sunshine officer Gabrielle Smitha said.
This change allows for more involvement, and also makes it easier to keep track of who did which activity.
“It was easier for me to track because everything was done within Sunshine Society,” Barrett said. “Most girls did okay on their community service, but I would get some that, too me, didn’t really count as community service.”
The Sunshine officers agreed with this as well.
“I think it should be kept as a point system because members have to participate in things and they can’t lie about their service hours,” Smitha said.
One concern of some members is the possibility of not being able to get enough points.
“I think the point system makes it harder for kids to fake their community service, which is nice,” Sunshine member Jaedyn North said. “But, it’s more stressful because if you can’t do one of the events, you don’t know if there will be another so you can get all of your points.”
In the future, Barrett hopes for more projects for Sunshine to be involved with to avoid this issue. She still plans to keep a few of their usual projects including helping with the Halloween Fest in both Fort Branch and Owensville, as well as partnering with others for the Giving Tree.
“I’m hoping that we can start doing more projects now that I’ve gone to the point system, just to give more opportunities for girls to earn their points,” Barrett said. “I think I like that better and I’ve had a much better turnout for our projects.”
