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Health & Fitness

HHS Ninth Graders Provide Dental Supplies to Children of Appalachia

Harrison High School ninth graders collect dental supplies for children in Appalacia

As part of the ninth grade curriculum, students immersed themselves in Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece To Kill A Mockingbird, an examination of racial inequalities that plagued the South in the 1930s.

Atticus Finch, Lee’s iconic protagonist and literary moral compass, sifts through the prejudice and deep seated beliefs of both races in search of truth and justice.  As an extension of the lesson, HHS students also viewed the video Children of the Mountains in an effort to better understand the characters in 1930’s Alabama by addressing the issues facing the poor in present day rural Appalachia.

In conjunction with the organization Appalachian Outreach Inc. Poverty and Disaster Relief program, the HHS freshmen learned of the abysmal dental care that impacts those in the area. One example is the overwhelming popularity of the soft drink Mountain Dew, which is even put into baby bottles, that often leads to dental issues that people cannot afford to have corrected. Students collected toothbrushes, toothpaste and other dental products and mailed them to a healthcare facility in Kentucky.

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