Cameron Hayden, of Cassopolis, is a senior at Ross Beatty High School who volunteers for several causes, including the Cass County 4-H, Future Farmers of America, National Honor Society and the He Reigns Rescue Ranch.

Q: How active are you as a volunteer?

Outside of He Reigns, organizations I am really active in are National Honor Society in Cassopolis and 4-H in Cass County and then the Cassopolis FFA chapter. Between these three organizations we do a lot of service-type, community-based activities.

For National Honor Society, one of the biggest things we do is a blood drive each year. We host that here (at school) for all the students to donate blood, and we also have open slots and open times for the community to come in and donate blood as well.

With 4-H we do a roadside cleanup twice a year. We go down the road our club meets on and we clean up the litter on both sides of the road. We also do through 4-H a lot of cards and gift baskets for the elderly at the medical care facility in Cass. We also do cards and gift baskets for the people in the military for what they do for us.

Through FFA we do a lot of leadership activities centered toward agricultural awareness. The biggest event we do is called Farm Days. It is a spring event where we take students from our middle school on a field trip to the fairgrounds. Then our FFA chapter teaches them about agriculture and animals and what the industry has in store for them and what they can expect to get out of it when they are old enough to work, be in the job force and go through our program at Red Brick and the FFA chapter.

He Reigns Rescue Ranch started a few years back. It is located on Barron Lake Road in Niles.

We take in abused horses and we go through and rehabilitate them, feed them and get them back up to weight and healthy again. Then we bond with them and teach them how to trust humans again. Eventually, once they are better, we take abused children and partner them with an abused horse. It really helps them and gives them something they can look forward to. Each partnership has a student leader that teaches them about the proper care of the horses and is there for them if they need to talk about something. They learn about Christ and the word of the Bible through the horse ministry. I am a student leader.

Q: Why do you think it is important to volunteer?

It is a part of the National Honor Society organization and the mission of the FFA. The motto is: Learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live and living to serve. So that is something I believe in because I am so active in the organization.

It is something about being able to give back and connect with the members of the community and really understand their point of view, what I can do for them and what they can teach me.

 

For more information about He Reigns Rescue Ranch, visit the website hereignsrescueranch.org. It is located at 61480 Barron Lake Rd., Niles. Contact them by phone at (269) 684-4073 or by email at contact@hereignsrescueranch.org.