In a time where much is being taken away, Lexington High School students are trying to give back.

The Lexington High School Males Only Club, a leadership and service program for Lexington High boys, will join with a similar group at Appalachian State University. The young men will then travel to Thomasville to serve hamburgers and hot dogs to the homeless today from noon to 1 p.m. at Cooperative Community Ministry.

The food was donated by the owner of 11 Lexington Wendy’s franchises.

“It’s young boys doing something positive,” said Donnie Holt, a retired educator and leader of the Lexington group.

Holt anticipates about 10 to 12 boys from Lexington and around 17 from Appalachian State’s club, Minority Men Leadership Circle, a member of which used to be president for the Lexington club.

“We’re going to come help set up and talk to the people, giving them hope to stick with it,” Holt said.

Although Holt says they originally planned to do the service project in Lexington, they later switched to Thomasville — partly because it’s Holt’s home town.

“I was born and raised here, and that’s a way for me to give back to my own community,” he said. “This community has given so much for me. I thought this was just an excellent opportunity to do this in Thomasville.”

Holt also hopes that the mingling of the two groups will give the college men a chance to mentor his boys.

“They’ll bond a little bit hopefully when they do the food to feed the homeless,”

The students from Appalachian State will meet the Males Only Club at Lexington High. Then the group can drive down on a bus together, having even more time to bond.

Holt started the Males Only Club four years ago as a club to help young men develop in a positive way.

“It’s about establishing true male qualities, like giving back to the community,” he said.

Besides service events like today’s cookout, Holt also takes the group on educational field trips to cultivate the mind, state-wide conferences, mentoring programs at middle schools and volunteer sessions at the Salvation Army after-school program.

“We do a lot of things to try to enhance the boys’ self-esteem and let them know that it’s OK to have good character and give back,” Holt said.

Bernard Williams, a member of the Appalachian State’s Minority Men Leadership Circle and a former president of the Male’s Only Club, says he encouraged the joint project partly because of his ties to Lexington High but also because the clubs are similar. That similarity encouraged Williams, now a sophomore, to join the Appalachian State club in the first place.

Holt says these types of groups are extremely important, especially in today’s society. Kids are dropping out of school at an alarming rate, not being efficient in the classroom and in some cases going to jail, he said.

“The disrespect a lot of our guys are showing is something that needs to be addressed,” Holt said. “I think this program will look at a lot of those factors.”

After the service event, the group will drive back to Lexington High, where the Appalachian State men will talk a little bit about college life.

Williams says some of the impact his comrades can have on the highschoolers comes from the fact that they’re from out of town.

“It’s other guys from different backgrounds that can come and talk to them,” he said. “It’s saying a lot when you have just some random guys coming to some small city like Lexington.”

The boys will end the day with a few games of basketball, again to nurture the bonding between the two groups.

“Our young boys in high school can spend some time with college students,” Holt said. “That might influence them to do the things they need to do to go to college.”