Rock Hill Schools students, athletes take pride in community cleanup day — together
Thursday marked the first of a five-day weekend for students of Rock Hill Schools, and a handful of students from across the region put sports rivalries aside to work together for a common cause.
Thursday morning, about 100 members of the Rock Hill, Northwestern and South Pointe high school communities came together in the name of community service in a collaborative effort between the district, Men on a Mission, and Catawba Indian Nation.
Athletes, administrators, staff and parents were in attendance to help pick up trash on the reservation.
“It just made me feel good that this many kids came out on their day off,” said William “Q-Rock” Cureton, co-founder of Men on a Mission, a Rock Hill-based group aimed at making an impact in the community through cleanups and other service projects. “Kids get a day off from school, and normally they’re at home, doing other things or playing video games. But for them to actually come out here in the community today and give three-and-a-half hours of their time, it shows where the Rock Hill Schools district is headed with the superintendent, school board, administrators, principals and the like.”
Thursday’s weather helped the turnout, with Rock Hill-area residents starting to see the first signs of spring.
The students split up into groups before going out into neighborhoods on the Catawba Reservation to gather trash.
“It always feels important to help the community and help the people who help me grow as a person,” said Finley Polk, a junior at Northwestern and the starting quarterback on the football team. “It was also good to be out here with some of my teammates, working to make it a better place around here, where we grow up.
“I think it was a really good experience,” Polk continued. “We worked together. We worked as a team, which is important on and off the field. We helped a lot of people, and hopefully we can come out and do it again.”
Ericka Pursley has been serving as the behavioral health specialist for the Catawba Indian Nation for four years.
She said that the group that came out on Thursday is the largest group that has she has ever seen as the community cleanups they have hosted.
Pursley hopes that the students who participated in the cleanup feel a stronger sense of community and are more inclined to make positive contributions to the areas that they live.
“I think that the Catawba Indian Nation has the same goal that Men on a Mission has,” Pursley said. “So giving these children something positive to do with their time to contribute, to see that there are others out there who may not have as much as they have or to see that lending a helping hand really makes a difference. And when you all come and work together, you can get so much accomplished and that will play into their future.
Added Pursely: “One of our beliefs are the things we do today affect up to 13 generations, so to see children and youth and volunteer to help our community, knowing that they’re our brothers and sisters as well, it’s really hopeful for a strong and healthy future for all of our community, both on and off the reservation.”
Northwestern, South Pointe and Rock Hill have shared fierce athletic rivalries in the past.
Cureton, a Northwestern alum, knows this all too well, but he doesn’t want to override the reality that they’re all a part of one community.
“On the court, it’s one thing, but off the court, we are one,” Cureton said. “And that was proven today when we brought around 100 youth from all three high schools from all the communities of different cultures, races, background, and they came together today to do one common goal: to clean up Catawba Nation. And I think we’ve done that.”
This is the fourth year Men on a Mission has facilitated a community cleanup in collaboration with Rock Hill Schools, and the first time they have cleaned up Catawba Indian Nation.
