ACADEMY ICU CLUB

The Academy for the Arts, Science, and Technology’s ICU club is a unique community service organization. The club’s mission is to reach out and make a difference in their Myrtle Beach community. The members are six teacher sponsors, four organization sponsors, and 35 students. Since the club’s inception, they have made commitments to five community organizations and events.

The Club was created to organize a community of young people who desire to make a difference. The American Red Cross (ARC) sponsored a group of leaders and helped give ICU a start. Then the Club made the commitment to assist three other organizations – Citizens Against Spousal Abuse (CASA), Habitat For Humanity (HFH), and SOS Healthcare.

In addition to this, they found another community needs that required addressing. Myrtle Beach is seeing an increased population of elderly in nursing homes. Many of the patients have no visitors and receive no correspondence. The ICU Club decided to bring a little sunshine to the residents who were sometimes very lonely, and they started Annie’s Angels. The Angels sole purpose is to make the nursing homes residents happy. They visit the homes and spend time with their mature friends. The Club members saw they could still make a greater impact and have decided to also visit those seniors at their homes because they have noone to care for them and give them attention. They also developed Senior Buddies. Each member adopts one senior to mentor, and they hope to care for their well being, learn from each other, and bridge the generation gap.

Some of the projects they have recently completed for CASA are coat drives and canned food drives. They also decorated a tree that was auctioned off with all proceeds donated to the organization. By becoming involved with this organization, the Club has been able to raise awareness about spousal abuse among teenagers and within the community at large. The awareness is a step towards combating the abuse.

During the Christmas season, The ICU Club helped the ARC conduct a dinner that fed more than 2300 meals to those less fortunate in the community. The meals were served at three different locations in the area. They also raised money for the Special Olympics and work with Pasta for Pennies, which raises money for a young girl suffering with Leukemia. In addition to this, they support the March of Dimes, The Black and Blue Ball, and the Myrtle Beach Marathon, which supports the ARC.

In the near future, the Club plans to assist in the building of a home for HFH. They are already recruiting other students because of the enormous need of volunteers for such a project.