The first semester of the 2021-2022 school year has been filled with many ups-and-downs, but the Minority Leadership Scholars of Apopka High School is finishing 2021 off strong with 12 Days of Christmas! You may be curious about what the group is however; to put it plainly, the Minority Leadership Scholars empowers young minorities to make significant contributions in their communities and to build a leadership pipeline from our very own high school classrooms. We wanted to know as much as possible about the 12 Days of Christmas so we spoke to Vice Presidents Taylor Adams and Michaela Moss, Senior Johnny Simmons, and Ms. Owens.

The purpose for the MLS of AHS to do the 12 Days of Christmas is to not only help the community but also to have something fun for the members of the MLS to do to get in some extra volunteer hours before the holidays. This is the 3rd year of the 12 Days of Christmas, and to the right is a list of all the activities that the MLS is partaking in before we go off for Christmas break; however, some things have changed dates. The night of December 2nd the MLS had a movie night in the auditorium and they watched “A Jenkins Family Christmas.” This was only the begining of the festivities though. On the 8th they did a toy drive and on the 9th was a boys vs. girls gingerbread house competition where the boys took a huge loss! “In my defense, it was only three boys that were there, so it was a struggle!” Johnny Simmons upholds. December 10th was a girl’s basketball game where Apopka took an easy win! The 14th was a day for members of the MLS to write Christmas cards for the elderly at the AdventHealth Care Center that will be delivered on Saturday, the 18th. The MLS did roller skating on the 15th at the Semoran Skateway in Casselberry.

We wanted to know what some of the members were doing to help participate in the 12 Days. Johnny tells us “I’m kind’ve just overseeing. I actually delegated Aja to be on the Days of Christmas. Her and Donavan put together everything and I can say I am truly impressed. I’ve done it for the past three years and to see what they have come up with is really something special.”

We asked Taylor Adams if there was anything else she’d like share with us about the 12 Days of Christmas or the club itself. She responded, “MLS is a group where we inspire, mentor, and think of others before ourselves, which sometimes [is] a bad thing but we really love the community and want to go out and help others. We do tons of community service which totally helps towards our Bright Futures, y’know the scholarship we have when you’re trying to graduate and you wanna go to college with the Bright Futures money and you have a certain ammount of hours.” They also help plan activites for Darter Unity Day and Black History Month. Overall, they really love to put their hearts into making our community a better place while making college tuition easier for group members to afford. The MLS wants to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.