On Sunday, 21 April, 231 volunteers from every ASL constituency—students from all three divisions, faculty, staff, administrators, parents, alumni and parents of alumni—joined together for the spring Community Service Day, which took place at 12 sites around London. Volunteers from neighboring school Quinton Kynaston joined us once again, and several sites invited local volunteers to join the ASL groups.
PCA VP for Community Service and ASL alumna Kyra Kentopp ’89 writes, "Projects ranged from small gardening and cleaning jobs to my own site where we hauled motorbikes from a river using nothing but ropes and long lines of heaving volunteers, used grappling hooks and amassed no less than four tons of rubbish from the river thanks to the labors of volunteers as young as 8 and others so old they really had lost most of their teeth! It was extremely cool, fun and most of all inspirational.
"The amount of work that can be achieved by this large group of volunteers is extraordinary and so many of our community partners rely on this twice-yearly visit from ASL in an increasingly difficult climate for charities and support organizations. It's always such a pleasure to hear from both volunteers and hosts alike that they count on each other and share the celebration of seeing their work continue between visits. Interestingly there's an increasing trend for ASL volunteers to return under their own steam to make this happen. It's at the core of the PCA's community service mission to support the service learning experienced by our student site leaders, and also to bring our school community into the local community.
"For anyone who's never attended Community Service Day, I'll share a secret: most of us feel that we get at least as much out of these events as the recipients of our hard work. You'll make new friends and strengthen the bonds in the ASL community; you'll get a rare chance to put in some old-fashioned grafting; you'll enjoy the satisfaction that your labors have made a difference to the community around you; you're being a great parent by sharing these opportunities with your children; and your whole family will sleep happier and better for all these reasons on Sunday night."
Thanks to Clare Leavenworth Bakali P ’19 for the great photo.
