Teen turns hobby into helping

Editor’s Note: This is the final story in a series about students in a new service-learning class at Lakeland High School.

Shooting has been a hobby for Paryn Grodi.

He learned how to shoot a bow and arrow from his grandfather in the forests of Michigan about three years ago, but the idea of using those skills for hunting never appealed to him.

But, when he found out that with a few tweaks — like sitting for hours on end waiting for a deer to pass by — his hobby could be put to good use, he made some changes.

Paryn, an 11th-grader at Lakeland High School, began hunting this season to “hunt for the hungry” and do what he can to help area farmers.

“At first, I was trying to figure out how I could help farmers in the community,” Paryn said. “I know they have a huge problem with deer eating their crops. Then, I found a venison donation project that helps feed hungry and it just seemed perfect. I’d never hunt for myself but to know it’s not going to just sit in my freezer is incentive to do it.”

Paryn plans to donate his kills to Hunters for the Hungry, which processes and distributes 500,000 pounds of venison to needy families. His efforts are part of a requirement for the “service-learning” class he is taking at Lakeland High School.

Students in the class must complete 70 hours of active volunteer work throughout the year and are engaged in several community service projects throughout the year. For each project, students must research their topic, connect it to Standards of Learning requirements, give presentations to their classmates about their work and record everything they do in a binder.

Paryn has already done research on his topic and spent more than 30 hours hunting already.

“It’s been a different kind of experience,” Paryn said. “It’s taken a lot of patience sitting in below-freezing weather, but it’s exciting even when you don’t make the shot to know that you’re that much closer to your goal.”

He is still trying to get in touch with more farmers willing to let him come and hunt on their property. Later this year, he’ll be taking a trip to visit his grandfather in Michigan, where he hopes to make some kills.

The research component of the program has also shed some new light on hunting for Paryn.

“I never would have done this on my own, but through research I found out that hunting actually helps keep animals from overpopulating,” Paryn said. “It was a new way of looking at it for me.”

Paryn has also been active in other class projects, including a canned food drive, raising funds for a cure for breast cancer and volunteering with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, at Driver Days.

Paryn said he originally enrolled in the class because he thought it would look good on college transcripts, but it has been an “eye-opening” experience for him.

“It’s really become about doing what I can to help those around me,” Paryn said. “As teenagers, we don’t realize what’s going on around us in the world. A problem won’t get solved unless there’s people out there working, and as teenagers we’re the ones with the energy to go out and do things. Hunger doesn’t just affect people in the world. It affects people in our country, my country. That really hits home, and there’s something we can do about it — even if it is just for a few families.”