In continued celebration of Saint Mary's 175th anniversary, Saint Mary's has expanded on the work of our annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service by making January a Month of Service. The goal is 1,750 service hours for the month of January for the entire Saint Mary's community, and we invite alumnae, parents, and friends of the school to join our students and employees in reaching this goal by volunteering in your own communities, working in spirit alongside our students, faculty, and staff all month.
Let us know if you will be volunteering in your community during the month of January by registering your hours with this online form. You can snap a photo of yourself volunteering and upload it when you complete the form. You can also share it on Facebook or Instagram, and tag Saint Mary's.
Questions? Email Director of Development Julie Ricciardi at jricciardi@sms.edu. Help us celebrate 175 years of Saint Mary's by serving others, together!
Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service
The Saint Mary's campus community observed the school's fourth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, Monday, Jan. 16, 2017, as the school served again as a host site for the United Way of the Greater Triangle MLK Day of Service. Hundreds of community volunteers joined Saint Mary's students, faculty, and staff in Bacon Gym to package thousands of soup mixes and rice/bean bags to help stock the shelves of the Interfaith Food Shuttle and Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, make no-sew blankets for those in need, and literacy flashcards for children in local early childhood education programs.
Eleventh-graders participated in an off-campus service project at the Durham chapter of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, where they sorted and packed some 7,000 pounds of potatoes and packed 6,484 meals that will feed local families this week. Read about the junior class effort in this blog from the Food Bank.
Following the service work, students gathered in Pittman Auditorium before breaking into advisory groups for discussion about the concepts surrounding a "Walk of Awareness" assembly presentation.
"Modeled after the collegiate event, Tunnel of Oppression, the sophomores have been working really hard on different skits and representations of discrimination and oppression to let people know about biases that happen every day in various communities," says sophomore class leader Stephanie Woods '19. "We just want everyone to start thinking about different forms of oppression that are present in our society and some forms that people don't realize exist."
This is the fourth year Saint Mary's School has offered a day of service for this national holiday, partnering again with the United Way to come together intentionally to answer the call of the King family to make the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday "a day on, not a day off." Saint Mary's School is grateful to experience this special opportunity to live into the school's philosophy of the importance of service and leadership.
The participation of Saint Mary's School in this annual Day of Service and the expanded Month of Service provide the opportunity for true community outreach and partnerships with our neighbors and local nonprofits.
Join us this year by participating in Saint Mary's Month of Service – January 2017!
