Community Council hosted its annual Community Service Week from Nov. 6-10. Students made 2,000 hygiene kits, packaged Thanksgiving meal kits and drafted letters for Hope in a Suitcase, a nonprofit organization that provides children in foster care with basic essentials and comfort items. The event also featured a competition, as each dean group and faculty competed for an award based on their participation in these activities.
Community Council member Clarissa Brown ’24 said the primary goal of the week was to bring the community together through enjoyable service activities.
“The school’s 12-hour community service requirement is often something that is at the back of the student body’s mind,” Brown said. “We have been told it seems like a big, last-minute burden when the deadline starts coming up. We hope that by organizing events like Community Service Week, we can help the student body and greater school community feel excited [about] community service. One of Community Council’s biggest goals is to instill a lifelong passion for community service within our student body, and I think that by introducing students to a variety of service organizations, we were able to help students find at least one opportunity that they felt a personal connection to.”
Community Council member Cole Grossman ’25 said students should find ways to serve communities while doing something they enjoy.
“For community service, we always say [students should] find something that they’re passionate about,” Grossman said. “Not only will they feel good because [they’re] giving back, but [they’ll] also find something they enjoy. Once they start to like doing that community service, it piles up, and in the end they’re giving back to something they like.”
Community Council member Zoe Roth ’24 said the best part of the week was connecting with outreach groups.
“My favorite part was writing letters to put in the hygiene kits,” Roth said. “I liked writing cute notes and decorating them so that the kits were more personalized to the person getting them. I also loved working with the [Los Angeles] food bank. I got to meet [their team], and I know that the meals we [prepared] are in good hands because they care so much about the work they are doing.”
Grossman said community service is encouraged given the school community’s privileged position.
“The students really helped those organizations because they were in need of a lot of resources and [items],” Grossman said. “Especially in a time like this, with Thanksgiving and the holidays, it’s important to recognize and be grateful for what we have. We [always] want to give back to those who are less fortunate.”
