POST FALLS - The students in Lael Hatch's third grade class leaned in closely as they listened to a story Friday morning.

They sat on the floor in the Prairie View Elementary classroom, encircling Post Falls High School seniors Shannille Randolph, 17, and Moesha Gray, 17, who read "Some Dog" by Mary Casanova. After the story, Randolph and Gray asked the students to write what they're thankful for on paper feathers. Maddie Staples, 8, shared what she wrote on hers.

"I'm thankful for my family because if I didn't have them, I wouldn't be alive," she said. "I'm also thankful for my family because I wouldn't have the food I have now."

Reading to area elementary students was just one of the community service projects PFHS students could do during their "Week of Giving Thanks." About 50 juniors and seniors in the freshman transition program, known as Link, donated more than 100 hours of their time helping at the Post Falls Food Bank, serving in local soup kitchens and working in the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store.

Link Leaders also collected nearly 300 children's books to donate to school libraries.

Hatch, of Coeur d'Alene, said she felt the Link Leaders were sending out a wonderful message to the younger students.

"I think it's great that it gets high schoolers out into the community and working with community members," she said.

Seniors and juniors in the Link program serve as mentors and role models for incoming freshmen. Link commissioner and PFHS senior Emilie Eylar, 17, said the "Week of Giving Thanks" went really well.

"We decided to give back to the community because we ourselves are really thankful," she said. Eylar said they wanted to do something to "spread this feeling around, this positive energy... to give our thanks to everyone."

Juniors Kathelyn Fuller, 16, and Anna Lindley, 16, also spent some time reading at Prairie View on Friday. They said they enjoyed the kids' responses to them, and the projects they had been involved in during the week were inspiring.

"On Wednesday I went to Seltice (Elementary School). I read to one class there, and I went to the soup kitchen and we helped out and we served, and it was a lot of fun," Lindley said. "It was a really neat experience, and seeing all the people, it just hit me, I was like, 'Wow, I am so thankful for what I have.'"

The paper feathers the Link Leaders collected will become the plumage of a giant turkey that will be displayed in PFHS for a few weeks and will tour to other destinations in the area. Many of the Link Leaders also filled out feathers to add to the turkey.

"I put my family and my friends," Gray said. "My family is my rock. They're always there for me."

When it comes to volunteering, Randolph said people should just go out and do it.

"There are so many different things that you can help with," Randolph said. "Even if it's something little like reading a book to a class."

Samantha Cooney, PFHS science teacher and Link coordinator told The Press the week has been amazing.

"Their feedback and the feedback I've gotten from the supervisors where they're volunteering has been fantastic," she said. "It's been such an amazing experience for all of us."