A 10-year-old boy has collected $182.44 from his school class to donate as Coins for Coughs to Mountain Hope Good Shepherd Clinic.
Mark James Howard of Kodak is part of 4-H. He is the service chairman for his club, which comprises Mrs. Benson’s fourth grade class at Catlettsburg Elementary School. The class has 21 students.
Glenn Turner of the University of Tennessee’s Extension Service gives students ideas of service projects that could be done. 4-H clubs are supposed to do a different service project each month. One idea was a dental hygiene drive for the Clinic. This is a popular idea as Mountain Hope is always in need of toothpaste, brushes and other dental supplies.
However, after consulting with Mountain Hope medical staff, Ashley Burnette, director of the Clinic’s fundraising arm, suggested that cough drops and cough syrup would be more fitting in January. Mark James asked the school for permission, but the school didn’t want to ask the students to bring in medicines. Instead, Mark James chose to do a Coins for Coughs fund drive and the Clinic would buy the cough medications with the proceeds.
Mrs. Benson supported the project and Mark James made up a flyer to hand out to all the kids. His classmates brought in coins and donated what was left from their concessions money.
“This was such a super project,” Burnette said. “We appreciate Mark James’s commitment to this project, and to the support that we get from Sevier County’s school 4-H clubs.”