Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School announced the service opportunities available for MSD students on the Day of Service of Love on Feb. 14, which included new options. The new options stemmed from ideas developed by clubs in the Interclub Council from their Nov. 14 meeting.
Every year on Feb. 14, the anniversary of the shooting at MSD, service projects are held by clubs around MSD’s campus for students to take part in during the day. These activities, such as helping to build benches in Marjory’s Garden and meditating with the Mind-Body Club in the media center, are meant to give students a relaxing day where they can still take part in projects to benefit the school and community. However, MSD is concerned that the limited number of service projects held in previous years will now not be enough for students to do.
In years past, not many students went to school on Feb. 14; fewer than 100 students attended in the first year. With each year that passes, more and more students have attended service projects held by MSD clubs. This year, it is expected that over 600 students will be attending; however, this information will not be known for certain until the attendance forms are filled out in January.
Because so many more students are expected to be attending than in years prior, the service activities that have been available in the past will not be enough for students to complete this year.
“As time has gone on, more students are choosing to come on campus to participate in service projects,” assistant principal Sandra Davis said. “And in order for them to be meaningful projects, space is actually limited in each one because the goal is for students to be actively engaged in community service. If you have too many students in one project… there’s not enough for everyone to do.”
MSD clubs were tasked with thinking of new ideas for service activities to offer for the half day on Feb. 14. In the Interclub Council meeting that took place Nov. 14, the goal was to try to find activities that students would be interested in. The council is made up of representatives from each of the clubs on campus. The project and service activities are both student-based and student-led, so they are attempting to find what would be the most enjoyable while also maintaining realistic ideas of what students can actually do.
“Some ideas are great ideas, and they’re incredible ideas, but they’re not sustainable for a long period of time,” ICC overseer Danielle Driscoll said. “It’s something, like writing letters is a great idea. But even if you have 100 kids, is it really going to take them four hours to write letters? Or would any kid really be able to sit and write letters for four hours?”
The Day of Service and Love has enabled the attending students to benefit their community and their school. Many clubs have seen this also as an outlet for them to get involved in activities that would better their members in their endeavors while still having a relaxing day.
“TV club got involved with a Day of Service and Love a few years ago,” TV club vice president Alex Gott said. “What we do is mainly garden work. We work on building things like benches while taking in the beautiful scenery, while at the same time we have kids around the school covering the many activities going on that day.”
Clubs have submitted their ideas, and the forms are now available to be filled out. The new activities include serving breakfast to first responders, making bookmarks and blankets with MSD’s Maker Space club, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with DECA and making T-shirts out of tote bags. The forms to fill out for Day of Service and Love can be found on MSD’s website and must be filled out by Jan. 19.
