Service Day

Today was the fall service day for the middle school students in my building. I have never had to organize a service day before because all my other teaching positions included doing service inside the school building and/or students logging their off-site service and turning in paperwork attesting to their service. But grades 6-8 at my current school have an entire day dedicated to service at the end of each trimester. Although the sixth and seventh graders usually do on-site service, it is truly a service day for them: the sixth graders organize a food drive every trimester, and then spend the service day sorting, counting, and transporting the donated food to the St. Vincent DePaul food pantry across the street from the school. The seventh graders organize a warm clothing drive in the fall and spend the service day sorting, counting, and bagging up the donated clothing to be transported to different organizations in the north Seattle area.

But traditionally the eighth graders spend every service day off campus performing service in the community, preferably with direct contact helping those in need. The eighth-grade advisory group led by the principal always goes to the local Ronald McDonald House, where he spent time as the parent of a hospitalized toddler decades ago. The experience, even though it ended in the death of his firstborn son, had such an impact on him that he gives back to that organization as much and as often as possible.

My predecessor and the other 8th grade teacher scaled back during the COVID years to taking their groups to a local park to pick up litter. Without direct contact with a specific group or organization, being entirely outside, and close enough to not require parent drivers to transport students, it made sense for the most recent years. However, as the service day drew near, and it suddenly dawned on me that it was in fact my job to organize a service day for my students, I thought I would jump on the litter patrol bandwagon to make my first service day easy on myself. But my principal encouraged me to find something that allowed for direct contact with a community in need.

So, I spent a prep period sending out emails to the many assisted living facilities near our school but did not hear back quickly from any of them. Finally, while I was home sick one day I decided to start calling the facilities I had emailed. The main line of the first place I called transferred me to the volunteer coordinator. I left a voicemail and started hunting for the next phone number I needed. But before I could punch the number into my phone, the volunteer coordinator from the first location called me back. She had apparently been out sick, and had started composing an email to me the same morning I called, but had not yet finished it. She was beyond thrilled that I had 20 eighth grade students who would be willing to work in the gardens at her site in the middle of November.

Thankfully, it was not raining today. In fact, it's been a very dry November for us. But the soil was thoroughly damp, which made it easier to pull weeds and save bulbs for replanting. My advisory got down in the dirt and worked hard today.

They earned their pizza lunch! Even though I had a student talk me into adding more pizzas to my order because they were all SO HUNGRY, it was money well spent. I was able to put two pizzas in the fridge at work for next week, which is conference week, and bring two pizzas home for my family to enjoy.

Also, residents, staff, and students all want us to return for our winter service day in March. My wrist hurts (which happens after overuse after I fell in one of my classrooms over a decade ago) and my spirit wear clothing and jeans are caked with mud. But it was a lovely day.