Day of service gives students the chance to make an impact in their community

Groton School students went out into neighboring communities on October 17 for a fall day of service, putting the school motto—cui servire est regnare—into concrete practice.

The event was one in a regular series of campus-wide volunteer opportunities designed to show students how their actions—no matter how small—can make an impact. Students had the day off from their regular school schedule and were given the chance to choose from a number of organizations in towns throughout the greater Groton area, including Ayer, Acton, Leominster, Lowell, and Pepperell, among others. 

“Some of the organizations are ones we’ve worked with before, and some are places we’ve hadn’t but that looked like there was a need for volunteers,” said Director of Community Engagement Elizabeth Phan. 

Opportunities included helping as teacher’s assistants at local schools, sorting secondhand clothing and furniture donations, conservation projects and trail clearing, cleaning and organizing at animal shelters and food pantries, and work with local immigrants and refugees, senior citizens, and disabled youths.

“Just knowing that our students live in such a small bubble, it’s really important for them to meet different kinds of walks of life—what a refugee is, what an immigrant is, what a person who doesn’t speak English is—and see what the reality is outside this bubble,” said Ms. Phan. “Days like this show students how they can interact with the bigger world beyond campus and learn from it so that they can make a direct or indirect impact in some kind of way. 

“I hope that they see that connection with people from different worlds is just the most important thing,” she added. “It keeps humanity running.”