Battle Mountain High School students make their community a better place for the 5th year in a row
Over 600 students, 46 teachers, 10 staff members to volunteer throughout Eagle County on April 17 for Husky Help Day
Battle Mountain High School/Courtesy photo
On April 17, over 600 Battle Mountain High School students will head out into the community for the school’s 5th annual day of service, Husky Help Day.
The schoolwide event connects students with volunteer sites throughout Eagle County to give back to their community.
“We’re proud of this day every year,” said Alex Peltier, the Battle Mountain math teacher who started Husky Help Day.
“We know that the community does a lot for Battle Mountain and education and we want to show our gratitude toward them, as well,” Peltier said.
The idea for the schoolwide volunteer day came from an administrator. “They thought it would be a really interesting thing to get going in our community, because we are such a small community,” Peltier said.
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“We were looking for a better way to get some school spirit, some school bonding and some community purpose in our building,” Peltier said.
Husky Help Day is organized and run by Battle Mountain’s student council. The student council’s department of philanthropy begins working on planning the day of service in October. This year, senior Sisi Desportes and junior Price Neynier spearheaded the effort, doing everything from contacting volunteer sites to ordering supplies to assigning students to each site.
On April 17, students, along with 46 teachers, and 10 staff members, will volunteer at more than 40 sites throughout Eagle County, including Mountain Valley Horse Rescue, Habitat for Humanity Vail Valley, Walking Mountains Science Center and more. Each student gets to pick their volunteer location from a list provided by Husky Help Day’s organizers.
“The volunteer work is very different depending on which location they’re going to,” Peltier said.
On the day of the event, students will show up to school at the regular time, then meet in their volunteer groups and head out on school buses to their volunteer locations.
Students will spend two to three hours doing all kinds of work at their volunteer locations, from mucking horse stalls to building homes. When they return to school, they will find a grill out hosted by the Battle Mountain administration to “celebrate (students’) hard work in the community,” Peltier said.
As Husky Help Day has evolved over the last five years, one thing has remained the same: “Every year, students always come back showing gratitude for the day and like they have accomplished something meaningful,” Peltier said.
Peltier and the Battle Mountain High School student council plan to continue to put on — and grow — Husky Help Day going forward.
“We want the community to know that we are always looking for more opportunities to give back to a place that we are so grateful to be,” Peltier said. “The more we work together, the more we help each other out, the stronger this community can be.”
