Two special efforts involving student volunteer in the past week can be characterized, literally and figuratively, as touching.
Students from the Eldon FFA brought a petting zoo and created a hay maze for Special Learning Center students to experience and enjoy on Monday.
And an estimated 150 Blair Oaks School District students on Friday assembled 28 bocce ball courts for Special Olympics competition, then cleared the field for a home football game in the evening.
At the Special Learning Center, Program Director Amy Edwards said the petting zoo - for students through age 6 - enhanced the sensory-based curriculum. And the hay maze, she added, helped students build motor skills.
Monday marked the second year for the event, established last year when Kent Shikles, advisor for the Eldon FFA, also had three students who attended the Special Learning Center.
"Although those students aren't here this year," Edwards said. "They contacted us and asked if they could come again."
More than a dozen FFA students groomed their animals, including a pig, calf, sheep, goat and more. They brought the animals for the Special Learning Center students to see, hear and touch, and set up the maze for students to navigate. And then, they packed everything up."
Edwards described the effort as "a wonderful sensory experience for the kids here at the center."
A similar volunteer commitment involving students, also for the second year, occurred at Blair Oaks.
Blair Oaks High School Principal Gary Verslues said Friday marked the second year the school agreed to host the Special Olympics bocce ball competition on its field, but this year the day-long event coincided with a home football game in the evening.
Volunteers - including students, coaches, counselors, teachers and boosters - helped assemble and disassemble the courts, worked at the concession stand and assisted other activities.
"In the morning," Verslues said, "we gathered all the students to form a human tunnel for the Special Olympics athletes to run through. I can't say enough about all the volunteers who gave their time, commitment and service."
These incidents are only two of many that occur regularly in Central Missouri.
They are notable not because they are exceptions to the rule, but because they are indicative of the caring and sharing that permeates our community.