From pulling weeds to packaging cookie mixes, Bethany Christian High School students spent Wednesday giving back to the community.

Wednesday marked Bethany's annual service day, where all students in the high school just south of Goshen were grouped into teams and bused to locations around the county to spend the day volunteering.

Renae Yoder, a math teacher at Bethany, took 11 students to Church Community Services in Elkhart, where the group helped package soup and cookie mixes for the organization's Soup of Success job and life skills training program.

The purpose of Soup of Success is to empower women by building business skills, self-esteem and independence.

Yoder said it was a good way for the students to give back to the community.

"The community supports us as a school," Yoder said, "so it's a chance to give back and help the community around us."

Other students were at locations around the county, some inside, such as at CCS or at outdoor places such as OxBow County Park or Bonneyville Mill County Park.

At CCS, an assembly line of sorts was set up for the students to fill bags of cookie and soup mixes.

"They keep wanting to stop at lunch and see if we can try them out," Yoder said with a laugh as students filled bags for a Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie mix.

Senior Andrew Culvhouse helped bag spices with classmates and pull weeds from the outside break room during the morning. Last year for service day, he helped tend the grounds at Bonneyville Mill.

"I like it," Andrew said of service day. "I think it's really cool."

He said he especially liked a devotional speech given before school, which provided inspiration and helped him better understand volunteering.

Does he feel his work Wednesday made a difference?

"Yes," he said. "Very much so."

Contact Katie Rogers at krogers@etruth.com.