As we count down the days to Thanksgiving break, Lakota is asking staff, students, parents and residents to help us count all the ways we are blessed as a school community. Looking back at the last year, who or what gives you a good reason to be thankful for your Lakota experience?

The Community Foundation of West Chester Liberty, in partnership with Lakota Local Schools, invites the community to tranform #Giving Tuesday into #GiveLakota this Nov. 27, in support of The Lakota Schools Foundation.

Veteran’s Day gave two new student groups at the high school an opportunity to shine, but most importantly, do what they set out to do this school year: honor our local veterans. Although the recent Tri-State Honor Flight brought the Patriotic Firebirds and East Veterans Network together in a unique way last month, both groups are forging their own path. Even just a few months after their inception, both have several impactful programs underway, not to mention even bigger plans for the future.

Several Plains Junior seventh-graders will make their first television appearance on a Netflix documentary series called “Dogs” premiering on Nov. 16. Although not the focus, their parts support an emotional story about Plains Junior seventh-grader Corrine Gogolewski and her family. They were followed by a production crew for an entire month last fall while she and her twin sister, Carly, were sixth-graders at Endeavor Elementary. They follow the family’s journey through receiving, training and welcoming Corinne’s service dog, Rory, into their family.

The standing ovation Cherokee Elementary sixth-grader Landyn Bomar received from a gymnasium full of his classmates last week demonstrated that his depth of his character went far deeper than the words expressed in a recent nomination letter from his former teacher, Todd Overbeck.

Advisory period at Liberty Junior School looked a little different last week. Encouraging teacher voice, student voice and student choice were all a part of creating an event called Hawk’s Choice.

For the first time, Lakota East dedicated an entire afternoon to encouraging students to explore the full range of post-graduation options available to them. Called “4E Day,” the event tapped into 70-plus local professionals representing career paths involving one or more of the 4Es Lakota promotes to all students: employment, enrollment, enlistment and entrepreneurship.

Cherokee Elementary sixth-grader Landyn Bomar was among just six students in the Tri-State honored at the Oct. 25 Heroes of Character Celebration. Hosted by the Character Council, which serves Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana, the event honors youth and adults who consistently demonstrate outstanding character traits in their everyday lives. Landyn was the youngest recipient of all six student honorees.

Over 200 Lakota students honored 75 veterans as they participated in Honor Flight Tri-State’s last flight of the year on Oct. 23. The morning began bright and early for a group of about 20 Lakota West students, as they headed to CVG airport at 3:30 a.m. in order to welcome the veterans and their guardians to their flight. The event was organized by the school’s new club, Patriotic Firebirds. Advisor Kristin Henley explains that the purpose of the group “is to support Firebirds who have joined the military or who are in the process of joining the military, their families and all veterans.”