As Sacred Heart Greenwich students begin the academic school year amid the coronavirus pandemic, the community service program continues to support organizations in need.  As September’s community service theme was education, students raised money for the Carver Center, the Don Bosco Center, and the Sacred Heart Summer Outreach Program.  Mrs. Kerry Bader, Upper School Theology Teacher and Community Service Coordinator, and senior Mary Hawthorn, Head of the Community Service, helped to raise donations for these organizations.

This month, Sacred Heart continues to provide resources for the Carver Center and the Don Bosco Center.  Both organizations provide education for students who do not have access to the materials and programs necessary for an adequate learning environment.

The Carver Center provides before and after school care, a pre-kindergarten program, and a Saturday program.  The organization embraces and promotes understanding and sensitivity for cultural diversity with respect for language and values differences, according to carvercenter.org.

The Don Bosco Community Center focuses on bilingualism.  The Early Childhood Bilingual Program helps to prepare three and four-year-old children of Latinx descent by helping them develop their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Spanish and English, according to donboscocenter.org.  Over the summer, senior Megan Maloney, juniors Caterina Pye, Gabriela Pye, Nadia Borja, Martina Bernal, Stefanie Novak, and sophomore Emma Robredo volunteered at the Don Bosco Bilingual Program.  Sacred Heart students continue to support this program on Saturdays.

Sacred Heart offers the Summer Outreach Program during the summer to support students with limited financial resources.  This program offers academic, athletic, arts, and technology instruction, according to shgreenwich.org.  As students returned to campus at the start of the academic year, Mrs. Bader explained the importance of education and how the community at Sacred Heart should be conscious of disparities in educational resources.

“As we’re heading back to school on a campus that offers so much in terms of facilities and extracurriculars, it allows us to think about students who may not have all of the things that we do,” Mrs. Bader said.

The Upper School had a civvies day September 24, raising $1200 for all three organizations.  The community service program stems from Goal Three of the Sacred Heart Goals and Criteria, “a social awareness which impels to action,” which encourages students to be more cognizant of the world around them. 

“Community service at Sacred Heart has come to be out of Goal Three which is a social awareness which impels to action which is one of our foundational goals,” Mrs. Bader said.  “We have this goal that we want our students to be able to understand and experience ways in which they can help others.”

Community service at Sacred Heart originates from the value placed on a worldwide awareness that cultivates a desire for ministry.  Mary explained what Sacred Heart has done to help raise money for the Carver Center, the Don Bosco Center, and the Summer Outreach program.

“We had several different community service opportunities within our school such as assistance with the lower school Tiger Time program, which includes lower school tutoring and helping in the Barat Center,” Mary said.  “We also hosted a civvies day September 24 where we raised money for communities our school has been supporting for years.”

Featured Image by Helena Randolph ’24