As she sat with special needs adults at The HIVE on Tuesday, Bowling Green High School senior Olivia Johnson felt gratitude for the chance to experience something new during her school’s Take the Lead Day.

Johnson was one of many BGHS seniors conducting community service projects. About 280 seniors spread out across 14 locations pulled weeds at Potter Children’s Home, sorted items at the Salvation Army and did other good deeds.

For Johnson, it was an opportunity to recognize that some lessons “you can only learn by experience,” she said.

“It’s really good for students to kind of expand their horizons and do something that they might not normally do on their own, that might be intimidating to do on their own,” Johnson said.

Kyle McGraw, a BGHS assistant principal, said the communitywide service event was meant to put purpose to what students might be learning in the classroom. He credited Karen Swiney, a counselor at the school, for playing a big role in organizing the community service blitz.

“Hopefully what we’re doing today is instilling that spirit of service that they’ll take throughout their lives and help to change our community for years and years to come,” McGraw said.

Students were sent to each of the district’s elementary schools, adult day care centers, the Housing Authority of Bowling Green and other locations.

The HIVE, a nonprofit on Nashville Road, is focused on teaching adults with special needs independent living skills and self-advocacy. For Johnson, it was a great find. She didn’t know such an organization had a local presence.

“I haven’t really had the opportunity to be around adults with special needs,” she said, adding it’s important to step outside one’s comfort zone. “I think that it’s important that we see other people and, you know, see how they’re living their lives.”

Devin Lewis, another senior, was also among the group as they used rolled up parchment paper stuffed into tin cans to mimic honeycombs. The project brought special needs adults and the high school students together at tables where they talked. Without Take the Lead Day, “I think a lot of them would feel left out,” he said, referring to the adults in the program.

“I think it’s a good thing to let people get together and hang out and feel like they’re not left out of anything,” he said.

Jessica Wilson, The HIVE’s program director, said the students were building bee habitats and planting flowers to learn about loss of habitat for bees, their ecological importance and about advocacy in general.

Advocacy for special needs adults, she said, is “all about knowing yourself” and “being able to communicate that.”

“It’s all about education and knowledge but also action,” she said.