Service Beyond Self: Seniors Give Back at McHenry
By Matt Peer - Faculty
Addition, subtraction, reading aloud, coloring, singing and dancing are not the typical daily activities for member of Darlington’s senior class. However, today the Class of 2012 spent their morning living the stanza of our Motto that reads “Service Beyond Self” when then completed the first step of their class service project at McHenry Primary School.
This year’s senior class began thinking about the impact that they could have on our community last May. The class wanted to create a project that would touch the lives of as many people as possible. For the past six months, they have been busy meeting with various organizations looking for a way to impact the lives of others as a class. Many ideas were debated and discussed, and in the end they decided to focus on the needs of children in our area.
This morning, McHenry Primary School welcomed 137 members of our senior class into their classrooms with open arms. Our seniors spent their morning assisting McHenry’s teachers with their daily classroom activities. Our students had the opportunity to share their passion for learning with the young people at McHenry as they learned Spanish, danced in gym class, worked on math problems, painted and colored, listened to music, and read books.
From the moment they entered McHenry’s gym until we left at lunch time, our seniors saw bright smiling faces everywhere they went. Today was a fitting day for Darlington to visit McHenry as it was also the one-year anniversary of the dedication ceremony of McHenry’s special-needs playground. (Our students were instrumental in helping McHenry get enough votes to secure the Pepsi’s Refresh Challenge grant that funded this project.)
Each of our seniors will have different memories from today that they will take with them for the rest of their lives. Our goal with this project and with all of our servant leadership opportunities is to instill in young people a sense purpose and giving back. Throughout the year, this class will be working on additional projects with the faculty and students at McHenry as part of their ongoing service project. If you have questions or ideas about our giving back and service at Darlington please feel free to contact me or Reba Barnes, our director of servant leadership.
As director of student life, I could not be more proud of our students than I was this morning. Please click here to view photos.
