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 The purpose of this program of service at St. Francis de Sales High School is to give the students an opportunity to exercise the values as exemplified by our patron saint, St. Francis de Sales, the gentleman saint.
This program and requirement is to give the students a way of exercising the values of Jesus in a very active and overt way. By concentrating on our local community, students can see the impact they make and how they are giving back something to the community. The community sees a multi-cultural dimensional portrait of the student, based on high visibility and as a positive role model. Young people so often are stereotyped in a negative fashion and really they do so much good and with so much energy.
Our students are with the lonely, homeless, disabled, and impaired. They give health care, tutor and recreate the young and old. The service rendered are numerous.
St. Francis de Sales requires all of their students to complete service which engages them directly with other people. The students as learners, gain new experiences such as adjusting to the needs of others and understanding those poeple with different viewpoints and from different cultures. There is an opportunity to reflect upon these experiences after they complete their hours. However, many continue their volunteering because they are unable to sever the relationships and because they have received so very much themselves.
Our student expectations are great but these young men have risen to the occasion over and over again with energy and tenacity well worth talking about.
Emphasis on this type of service to mankind develops the heart of each one of us and this, as every educator realizes cannot be measured with any tests or quizzes.
Those seniors who chose to do community service this summer put in more than 5750 hours. This is a conservative total of their hours. The KNIGHTS are to be commended for their service as they did feed the hungry, gave help to the poor, tutored the young and the older, facilitated activities among children as well as those in elder care. They served in Rosebud, So. Dakota on an Indian reservation, in Honduras, Guatemala, Appalachia, as well as in our immediate community. Their visual presence was well noted. They have served well. Thank you summer KNIGHTS of service. |
