Ms. Rasmussen was born in England and grew up in Maine. She moved to Georgia seven years ago and received her citizenship in 2019. She started teaching at Cherokee when she moved to Georgia and teaches Spanish. She has a Senior who will be graduating this year and likes to work with and volunteer in her church. She is renowned at the school for her love and engagement with students, but that dedication doesn’t stop at the doors of CHS. She is equally invested to serving those in our community.
“I really think it’s important to teach your generation about service and to pass that mindset on to make our community stronger,” said Ms. Rasmussen in an interview.
Ms. Rasmussen is co-advisor for the Interact Club with Ms. Clarke and has been for five years now. The Warrior Wishes Project was started by Ms. Rasmussen but was merged with the Interact Club five years ago. The project then became a sub-entity in Interact Club through the Canton Rotary. The Interact Club’s foundation is service above self, and this is reflected through their many community service projects.
“It’s not about getting hours or checking boxes. It’s about taking care of our community, because we are a part of our community. We are only as strong as our weakest link. And so whatever we can do to help support and improve the lives of “our weakest links” we do.”
Ms. Rasmussen
If someone is in need of food, emotional support, clothing, etc. then that’s where the Interact Club steps in and fills the gaps.
In years passed, they have collaborated with other clubs that have on-going service products.
They have helped establish the Warrior Collective, which piggybacks off the Cherokee Collective. The Cherokee Collective is a part of the community network that was started by members of the Canton Rotary. People from the community and different organizations come together to help fortify and to help support our community, do service projects for our community, and help families and individuals in need.
The Warrior Collective is about bringing clubs together to support each other and work on projects.
Ms. Rasmussen also worked with the interact club and continued the Warrior Wishes project. The Warrior Wishes project started out as a project for the fifth graders at Hasty Elementary School. They worked through a KSU initiated project, the Quintos program. The Quintos program helps ESOL students with their literacy skills in reading and writing. The students write stories about their lives in English, Spanish, or their dialect.
The Warrior Wishes project raised money to get each of the kids a $150 gift card to take them shopping to meet their winter needs.
Due to COVID-19, the Warrior Wishes program has shifted focus from the elementary school to CHS. The Warrior Collective helped to meet kids’ needs.
They were gifted donations from the community. The Cherokee Collective, Warrior Collective, and the organizations throughout the city were able to come together to meet kids needs.
Ms. Rasmussen and the Interact Club have also helped with the food pantry that was started by MUST Ministries. They partnered with MUST Ministries and the Chick-fil-A student athlete leadership team to help with the food pantry. They help get food ready, get the shelves stocked, and prepare for food distributions on Thursdays. Ms. Rasmussen, alongside others on the teams, never pauses if a need there is a need to be met.
Ms. Rasmussen has also assisted with the Interact club in the clothing closet to collect, sort, and store, and bag items.
“I am not the piece of the the puzzle, I am just one piece of the puzzle. It’s not about me. It’s about working together for the greater good of our community.”
Ms. Rasmussen
Ms. Rasmussen also assisted the Spanish Honors Society with service projects such as tutoring ESOL students in English and collecting items for gift baskets to give to the women at the Family Violence Center on Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Valentine’s Day.
Ms. Rasmussen has also helped through Revolution Church’s program called Life on Mission. Life on Mission is an initiative that the church has taken to be the hands and feet of Jesus and to help the community. Cherokee County residents may see her out and about serving through the church’s many service projects.
Ms. Rasmussen talked about the importance of teaching the upcoming generations how important it is to give back to the community to leave generations that can take action, put service above self, and keep the commitment to the community going.
Through the program, she has been able to teach English classes to non-English speaking community members. There she is know as the principal. She relies on what she knows about teaching and organizing people to help keep the classes going and productive. Many volunteer with little to no knowledge of teaching.
“That’s the beauty of it is bringing all of those people together for our own community,” said Ms. Rasmussen.
Due to COVID-19, in-person classes were stopped. However, Ms. Rasmussen continued teaching classes on Facebook Live to people from all over the United States and Latin America.
Life on Mission also works with MUST Ministries and SERV International to distribute boxes of food. The volunteers walk from house to house and fill trucks up with food boxes from SERV International to deliver boxes and to talk with the members of the community.
“It’s almost like an addiction, if I’m being honest, because one you start doing that and it just feels good to know that you’re doing good on purpose.”
Ms. Rasmussen
Ms. Rasmussen also talked about a big takeaway from all of her service.
“I think one of the most important takeaways I’ve had from any of that is that theres a difference in being a tyrant leader and telling everybody else what to do, and being a servant leader and getting underneath people showing them what to do and help lift them up to be better servants themselves and to pass that on and multiply it,” said Ms. Rasmussen.
Ms. Rasmussen also shared that one of her goals for the future is to get back to serving because there is still need in the community. She also shared that she would also like to restart the Quintos program again and to soon have a one-stop shop for clubs in Canvas for all students at CHS to access.
She also shared her desire for more time in the school day or school year for service.
“The most important way to start helping out that I know is to talk to your teachers. If a person is in need and or wants to help, talk to advisors such as Ms. Clarke or myself or any of the other club advisors and we can help direct you in a positive way to where you can help out. Rotary Club does food drives and pairs with Must Ministries. The next one will be May 22.”
We are so glad to have teachers who work and provide service in the community like Ms. Rasmussen. She truly demonstrates what it means to be a Warrior.
THE WARRIOR WORD 