Every year Challenge Day Club puts on an appreciation week for the staff that tend to get overlooked. Throughout the week, a breakfast and luncheon are held to show them that the students do care and they are given thank you notes and gift baskets put together by challenge day members.

“It is so easy to take people for granted who have to pick up trash after us, who cook our lunches, who drive us, so it’s nice to appreciate them,” appreciation week volunteer Marla Warden said.

Mrs. Warden helps out every year by making pancakes and omelets and when she is free, visits with the staff just to say thank you.

“We are so thankful for these people and we want them to feel loved and appreciated,” Challenge Day sponsor Jeanna Sutton said. “And to let them know we could not make it without them.”

Sutton has continued the week over the years because the staff loves it.

“We realized that the custodians, the bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and the maintenance workers work so hard for our school and our school district, but they don’t ever get recognition,” Sutton said. “So we just wanted to do something extra special.”

The hard work of all the staff members helps the students more than they know.

“They do so much for our district. Our district would not function without these people, without our bus drivers bringing kids to school, and our cafeteria workers feeding them, the district wouldn’t run,” Sutton said. “They are essential to our district.”

The staff do all the work many do not want to do and the appreciation week is just a way for the school to say thank you.

“It makes a huge difference,” Warden said. “If you were a janitor, a bus driver, or even a cafeteria worker and had to pick up trash after everyone thinking that the students didn’t care about you, but all of the sudden you are getting thanked with a breakfast, a luncheon, and goody basket it lets them know that they are appreciated and it gives them pride.”

Challenge Day Club members are not the only ones saying thank you.

“It is really exciting to know that we are appreciated, and we do love what we do and that people actually understand and love what we do for the kids,” cafeteria manager Nitosha Ramsey said. “We just want to say thank you.”