Community Council organized Community Service Week with activities to help raise awareness about charities in the community and bring students together for service from March 11-14.
On Monday, Wags and Walks, a charity that rescues dogs and finds them new homes, brought puppies to the Quad and Community Council organized a hot dog eating contest. On Tuesday, hot cocoa was served in the lounge, with proceeds going to TreePeople, a local environmental organization. On Wednesday, Father Greg Boyle, the founder of Homeboy Industries, gave a speech to the entire school community to bring awareness to his organization, a gang rehabilitation program. On Thursday, students helped make sandwiches with Youth to End Hunger, while Angel City Sports, an organization that provides opportunities for adaptive sports, hosted an event in Taper Gymnasium to play wheelchair basketball with students. On Friday, sophomores learned about Giving Spirit, an organization that provides help to homeless individuals, and made kits for unhoused individuals in LA. Community Council also served pie in honor of Pi Day.
Community Council member Nate Verny ’25 said the week helps bring the community together with service, allowing the school to come together through each different day of the week.
“This is an annual thing that Community Council puts together as a way of bringing our school together,” Verny said. “It emphasizes both community service and community belonging by putting together a bunch of activities for our school and students to bond.”
Noah Ramsey ’27 said he enjoyed the puppies on the Quad because he his special connection with dogs enabled him to be more productive throughout the day.
“I participated in the dog petting,” Ramsey said. “I have an emotional connection with dogs, even though I don’t own a pet. Being able to see them on campus brought me a calmer sense of workflow and relieved the stress during the school day. It was nice being able to pet the dogs and just relate with them.”
Hal Craig ’27 said wheelchair basketball helped him empathize with the players as he realized how much challenging it is to play sports with a disability.
“Wheelchair basketball was not only super fun to watch everyone do, but it also gave some significance to what they do,” Craig said. “As we saw from our regular students hopping into wheelchairs and attempting to do wheelchair basketball, it’s a lot harder than you might think. It gives a kind of legitimacy to what wheelchair basketball’s disabled athletes are doing. Not only do they have to overcome their disabilities and be able to compete at that level, they also have to work just as hard as a regular athlete might in their sport.”