LMA junior works hard for fellow students, community

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Laurence Manning Academy junior Bailey Gottheiner is president and founder of the American Red Cross club at her school. She is also founder of career day at the school, planning and organizing the event each year with her mother, who is co-founder.

Bailey is active in her church and in her community; she a current member of the LMA Anchor Club, the Beta Club, the National Honor Society, and is a member of the bowling and track teams.

A former volunteer of her school’s History Club and its media center, she was also a volunteer at Tuomey Regional Medical Center and is currently volunteering at Manning United Methodist Church and its Vacation Bible School each year.

During her first year at LMA - as a freshman - Gottheiner immediately started looking at ways she could be of service to the school and her fellow students. As a result, she and her mother, Kelly, came up with the Red Cross Club and Career Day.

After attending a Red Cross orientation, becoming a volunteer was easy but Bailey took her training to another level and opened up a Red Cross Club at school. After presenting a calendar of events to school officials, Gottheiner and her mother began holding meetings. They now have more than 40 members.

“I consider myself a leader as well as a server,” said Bailey. “I like to help others. That’s what I’ve grown up doing. I have grown up helping in my church with Easter egg hunts and other activities.”

Kelly Gottheiner is all too familiar with the needs of teens struggling with making career decisions.

“We invite speakers from all careers state-wide to come and mentor to students, so that we are able to inform students on career day and answer questions,” said Gottheiner. “For many students, it is difficult to decide what they want to major in due to lack of information. Within that 45 minutes the career speakers are speaking, students have the information to better equip them to make well-informed decisions about college. Making wrong career choices is time consuming and can be costly.”

This year, the Gottheiners arranged for anesthesiologists and neurologists to mentor students on Career Day.

They have offered students as an added incentive to follow-up with them if they were interested in shadowing for a day, which proved to be successful.

Bailey wants to work in the medical field some day, she said. Over the past two years Bailey took week-long courses at Clemson in human oncology and molecular biology.

Bailey continues to be active in many activities of the Red Cross Club, including making Valentine's Day cookies and cards for the Sumter Veterans Administration and Christmas cards for active military members.

The group did a stuffed animal drive this year for the Red Cross to give to the Sumter Police Department, which gives the stuffed toys to children at various emergency calls.

The group also did a backpack drive last year for homeless veterans and gave the items collected to the Manning Veterans Administration.

“With the cookies and cards we made and delivered to the VA, they were so appreciative,” said Bailey. “Just to be thanked and appreciated that much by them was worth a million dollars and it was just cookies. They gave the ultimate sacrifice.”