On Oct. 3, not one Parkview High School student spent a full day at school -- they were all out learning and serving in the community.

The Fifth Annual Parkview Cares event is a schoolwide effort that teaches students the important lesson of giving back. Parkview freshmen, sophomores and juniors spent their entire day volunteering at local nonprofits, like Crosslines, Diaper Bank of the Ozarks, Habitat for Humanity and more.

At the Boys & Girls Club Stalnaker unit, 14 sophomores spent two hours vacuuming, cleaning windows, scraping the gym floor and more. 

"A lot of these students, they potentially were a part of or visited a Boys & Girls Club when they were younger, so they have a connection to it," said Chris Shelton, Stalnaker unit director. "We appreciate the help."

Students volunteered at more than 30 different sites throughout the day, learning about different community organizations and the difference students can make in their own community.

"Our purpose is to teach about service learning and helping others and to show our kids that it's a big world out there, and there's a lot of people that need a lot of help," said Jason Michel, Parkview High School assistant principal. "And as part of our leadership program at school, we teach you a lot about compassion and helping others."

In addition to thousands of volunteer hours given today by Parkview students, seniors completed a career day, where they participated in jobshadowing activities in chosen industry across Springfield.

View more photos from Parkview Cares 2018 on Facebook.

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