Selfless Service
Day of Service is an opportunity for the Holy Cross school community to come together and devote an entire day to serving in the communities. On April 27, 2022, the school split up into various groups and went to different service sites.
This is a part of an annual tradition that started in 2018 for the school’s 150 anniversary. It was so successful that it became a new tradition. The day of service had to change slightly between 2020 and 2021 due to Covid. Instead of going out into the community, the school had to stay on campus. While it might have looked different from the past years, one thing stayed the same, the Holy Cross community and their willingness to serve.
This year was the first Day of Service since 2019 that went out into the community, led by Director of Social Justice Maika Walker, her first time organizing the Day of Service.
“There was already a foundation built from the years past, for me to work off of. With Covid and everything changing so quickly, a lot of places that we had done in the past weren’t taking volunteers. I had to do more research to find sites that would take a number of students,” Maika Walker explained. “I looked at local places that connect with volunteer sites and looked at their lists and emailed each one. I probably emailed 70 or 80 different sites and ended up with 30 sites in the end.”
Day of Service is a way for students to serve with their peers and teachers. Walker wanted it to be fun and multifarious, to show the many different ways that students can serve.
“I wanted a lot of variety. I didn’t just want to do just one kind of service. I wanted a mix because our students have many different skills and interests, so I tried to make the day really diverse,” Walker noted. “I also wanted to take into account local Catholic charities, really just ones that helped people. That was my focus.”
Day of Service not only helps the sites that they visit but also the students and staff themselves. The various sites can teach them numerous life skills.
“I went to the Capital Area Food Bank in DC and we pulled weeds in the garden that they had on site. I learned how to be more conscious of how our food is grown and where it comes from, even though this was on a much smaller scale,” sophomore Sophia Pimenta noted. “I also learned how resourceful you can be while growing food. At the site they collected the rain water to then use for irrigation and they composted their waste and used it as fertilizer.”
Some students were not as excited in the beginning to do service; however, they quickly realized that this is a great opportunity to help in their communities.
“For my Day of Service, I raked bushes and I ziplined. I learned that it is fun doing service, it also adds new adventures and is a great push to try new things,” junior Genet Goeke-More confessed.
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