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Wakefield students 'give back' through community service
Wakefield School in The Plains takes community service seriously, expressing in its mission statement a commitment to “the equal importance of character and intellect.”
Last week, sophomores from the prep school built birdhouses and character as volunteers for Fauquier Habitat for Humanity. Other groups from the school volunteered their time for neighbors near and far.
Working in the Habitat workshop near Lord Fairfax Community College, 10 students crafted 14 napkin holders, 14 cutting boards, and seven birdhouses. Wakefield purchased the materials and Habitat supplied the know-how, offering students hands-on woodworking instruction.
“The Habitat volunteers were great about not just doing assembly line type procedures, but really teaching them how to do it,” said Wakefield teacher and 10th grade advisor Chris Mulligan.
“They were doing the whole project from start to finish,” echoed Nancy Martin, a Wakefield teacher and co-advisor of the school's Service Club, noting that the students seemed to take pride in being able to point to the toast-shaped chopping board or napkin holder and know that they built it themselves. The students worked in pairs to create the more complicated bird houses, she said. Students decided to sell their wares at school and will donate the proceeds to Habitat.
Approached by Habitat volunteer coordinator Aubree Silver, Wakefield advisors jumped at the chance to work on the project.
“It's hard to find community service projects that are one-shot opportunities that fit the time we have,” said Martin. “This project just fit that ideally.”
Omar Aminzay, from Chantilly, and Claire Dryden, a Haymarket resident, said they enjoyed the building experience.
“It was a blast,” said Aminzay. Though he has “gotten his hands dirty” installing flooring with the family business, woodworking was a new and enjoyable experience for the sophomore. Aminzay has also dabbled in community service. A member of the school's Service Club, he has helped with recycling projects on campus. “We believe we have to give back,” Aminzay said.
Dryden expressed the same sentiment. The project, she said, was her first hands-on effort at community service, but Dryden said she enjoyed the fact that “something I made is going to help someone.”
“This is a good way for them to make contact with this service organization,” Mulligan said. A long-time faculty member, Mulligan praised the efforts of the students as well as the teachers who organized the activities. Martin and Service Club co-advisor Carolyn Wyrsch developed the plans for the school's Community Service Day.
On Tuesday, sophomores were split into four groups. In addition to helping out at Habitat, one group worked with Medical Missionaries in Manassas, another volunteered at the fire station in The Plains, and a third spent helped out at The Community House in The Plains.
Martin and Wyrsch have developed “the most meaningful activities a kid could hope for,” Mulligan said. “I can't think of any better way for kids to have [community service] modeled than by the opportunities being brought to them by Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Wyrsch.”
In addition to this week's community service day, Wakefield's Service Club is active throughout the school year.
“We have actively had a Service Club in our upper school for the past 14 years,” Martin said. “We have several annual projects as well as new initiatives. For example, we sell candygrams for Valentine’s Day and donate the proceeds to a charity chosen by the students. We collect food at Thanksgiving for needy families, and adopt families to provide holiday gifts.”
Last spring, the school received a $1,500 grant from the Fauquier/Loudoun Student Philanthropy Project, she said.
“We are in a year-long campus-wide partnership with the Fauquier Food Distribution Coalition. We purchased much-needed computer equipment with most of the proceeds, and we will be donating food on a monthly basis as well as providing volunteers to help with the monthly collection and distribution,” Martin said.
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