Fusion students strive to ‘connect with the community’
By Pixie Sulser
Ramona High School could be called a campus that rarely sleeps. As the town’s primary secondary school, there never seems to be a lack of activity.
That is especially true for the Fusion Club of RHS. Fusion is a community service oriented group of students and staff whose motto is to love, serve and empower.
“Our real theme,” shared Fusion President Ellen Douglass, “is ‘Students helping students connect with the community.’”
There are approximately 80 club members, making it the largest organization on campus, according to adviser Jim Plum. Membership comes through teacher recommendation so, “most of our members are sophomores through seniors, however a few freshmen have been recommended for membership,” said Douglass.
The group is led by a Fusion Council of student leaders. Joining Douglass on this year’s council are Ava Anderson, Bryan Kelly, Kristy Keyes, Kimberly Meader and Tyler Weaver-Villa.
The group organizes a variety of service projects on and off campus. They host monthly Campus Beautification Days resulting in planting 16 palm trees, removing eight dead tree stumps, repairing bathroom latches, renovating the campus bike rack area, painting the bathrooms and cleaning bleachers.
Fusion also provides tutoring services for students on campus. Students or teachers on behalf of a student may request tutoring by completing a Tutor Request and dropping it in a Fusion Tutor Box.
At weekly meetings, council members ask for volunteers from the membership to fulfill the tutoring requests.
Off campus projects include a variety of activities. In November Fusion partnered with the boys basketball team to host a Trash-a-Thon.
“We literally cleaned up the whole town of Ramona!” said Douglass. “Local businesses sponsored members for bags of trash collected or they could make a flat donation. The project was very successful.”
The group loaded 334 bags of trash into dumpsters that Ramona Disposal Service donated. Funds raised from projects such as the Trash-a-Thon are being saved toward the purchase of a RHS campus directory for the entrance to the school.
Three times a year Fusion members participate in the Feed the Hungry program, assisting local churches with the serving of food to community members in need.
Fusion was one of the many Ramona school district groups that collected canned goods and toys for the annual Share Your Holidays event hosted by the Ramona Food and Clothes Closet.
“Twelve Fusion leaders even assisted in the passing out of presents to young children and bags of food to families in need,” said Plum.
“The word fusion means uniting diverse elements into a unified whole,” said Plum. “We desire to match strengths with areas of need. The bottom line is Fusion leaders have a passion for making a positive impact on their campus and community.”