Service
“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these
who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
Matthew 25:40
The Christian call to service is intimately related to Jesus’ call to love our brothers and sisters. Throughout the Gospels, we are called to serve our brothers and sisters. When we serve one another, especially the poor and the forgotten, we are serving God in those people. Saint Mary’s Lasallian tradition is itself an expression of this call to love, for education is a sharing of God’s Truth with the world.
The calendar for service opportunities can be found HERE.
At Saint Mary’s College High School, our service program has many different elements. We engage in different drives over the course of the year to collect necessary items for different communities, including the following:
Toiletries Drive - Held during the month of September, as well as after Enrichment Week
Sock and Coat Drive - Held in the Fall/Winter
Food Drive - Held during the Winter
CRS Rice Bowl - Held during the season of Lent
Bucket Wars - Held during Founder's Week
Within Ministry, the Service club is a group of students who come together weekly both to plan service opportunities for the entire Saint Mary’s community. Meetings are generally held on Wednesdays, and all students are welcome to attend and offer ideas for service opportunities. Service club students have raised funds to support organizations such as our “Twin” Lasallian School, St. Mary’s Secondary School in Nyeri, Kenya, and also supported our Immersion Programs.
Lasallian Days
Enrichment Week
Student Fundraiser for Tuition Assistance
Athletic Team Service Activities
“PALS” – Peer Assisted Learning Support Tutorial Program
Senior Projects
Blood Drive
California Scholarship Federation Activities
National Honor Society Activities
Our continued hope at Saint Mary’s is that we develop service-oriented leaders who recognize that they are responsible for their brothers and sisters who surround them. In this way, each and every one of our service opportunities are not the goal, but instead act as a means to developing a life of service and encounter, inspired by the Gospel’s call to love one’s neighbor.
SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES
|
Organization |
Description of Service |
|
Berkeley Catholic Worker |
Prepare and serve breakfast; help distribute toiletries collected by SM |
|
Canticle Farm |
Food and produce distribution |
|
Catholic Diocese of Oakland |
Feeding the Hungry A simple dinner is served for all in need of a meal on Wednesdays from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm at the plaza. Volunteers should arrive at 4:30 pm. |
|
St. Mark’s Hot Meals Program |
Dinner is served at 4:30 p.m. and the preparation consists of two volunteer shifts: Shift 1 – 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.- This includes setting up the work area, making the dinner and lunch bags, cleaning up and then setting up for dinner. Shift 2 – 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. – This includes packing to-go boxes and staging lunches and dinners. At approximately 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. we will distribute the to-go boxes and lunches to the guests. Then we clean up the kitchen, parish hall and distribution area |
|
Friends of the Fountain |
Friends of the Fountain is a small volunteer nonprofit focused on preservation and maintenance of a historic fountain. It sponsors a clean-up at the Marin Circle the first Saturday of the month. |