By David Taylor / Managing Editor
It’s not often that students are looking for leaders. The roles are usually reversed—adults are looking for teens as members for their program—but there’s a student organization at Crosby High School that’s hoping some volunteers in the community will step up to help lead and sponsor them.
“We have a solid group of students who love to volunteer and enjoy spending time with each other on projects,” said CHS Algebra 2 and Pre-Calculus teacher Roberto Cruz.
No worries about the leadership by Cruz on campus aided by his colleague Renee Stewart in the Math Department. They are solid and as committed as ever.
The students? Well, they’re thriving under the leadership of their sponsors and making their mark throughout the community volunteering and participating in numerous projects.
So, what’s missing?
“We’re missing a host Lions Club,” Cruz said.
A LEO club is the youth organization of the Lion’s Club International, a service club that gives back to the community with volunteerism and honing leadership skills.
“Traditionally, the LEO Club has a host Lion’s Club in the area to help and assist the students, but the Crosby club folded a few years ago,” he said.
Shortly after the pandemic, membership in the Crosby Lions Club dwindled down to one person having to do everything by themselves and the club was dissolved.
That left the LEO’s without a leadership club and Past District Governor Chuck Martin said they were able to attach them to the Huffman Lions Club for the time being. There are no complaints with the help coming from the Huffman Lions who have supported them unabashedly.
Now, the leadership in this region is anxious to reorganize a new Crosby Club to support and lead the student organization, a move that would strengthen all involved.
“I got involved when the previous faculty advisor had just left,” Cruz said. He responded to a mass email requesting a sponsor for the club to do the adult things for the club.
“That seemed like my speed,” he said.
He immediately met with the remaining students from the club and their officers.
“We really didn’t do a whole lot that first year because I took over toward the end of the school year,” he explained, but Cruz and his students hit the ground running the following year.
He began the new year with five or six students, but that group was very passionate and very vocal and they began to grow exponentially.
Fast forward five years and the LEO Club is one of the largest on campus.
“We mostly have juniors and seniors, but they have been reaching out to freshmen and sophomores to commit to the work,” he said. “Unlike the juniors and seniors, they are mostly limited because of transportation.”
“What really gets these high schoolers motivated to join when they’re juniors and seniors is community service hours,” he said. The hours look good on their college entrance applications.
They also have another related incentive.
“Students want cords to wear at graduation and we’re one of the organizations that awards those,” he said.
They don’t do the projects for that alone, but out of generous hearts. The concern there is the supporting Lion’s Club usually purchases the cords for the graduating seniors. Cruz has been able to secure the coveted cords, but his supply is quickly being depleted.
“I have found there’s a lot of good that the youth in general want to do, but most of them have an outlet with church groups or families that are active,” he said. Others who come and stick with the program haven’t necessarily found an outlet outside of school but can be involved in LEOs.
“They are a big help to us at CUIC,” said board member Dr. Shirley Ellisor. The students come to help at Churches United In Caring during the Halloween and Christmas markets and almost whenever they are asked, she said.
“We also help out at our local schools,” Cruz said. That’s included cleaning parking lots, cleaning up gardening areas at the elementary schools, and conduct their own bake sales to fund a scholarship at the end of the year.
“We have also gone to help on a farm where they donate a lot of produce, eggs, and vegetables to the food bank,” he said. In the past, they have also volunteered for Habit for Humanity.
Now, the Lions District 2-S2 will host an organizational meeting next month and elect officers. The meeting will be led by First Vice District Governor Mike George who is encouraging those who may be interested in reaching out to him and letting him know you’ll be attending. He can be reached at 936-334-4717. All offices will be filled that night and new members will be sworn in.
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