So much to offer: Service Day focuses on access and action
The morning assembly started with an introduction from Upper School Council (USC) presidents Annie Zhang and Cerena Karmaliani. They encouraged the whole school to show up fully and participate in giving back to the community aligned with SPA’s values of community, excellence, belonging, kindness, and purpose. USC collaborated with six local organizations this year to bring STAR House, Period Kits, Operation Gratitude, HandsOn Twin Cities, Cards for Hospitalized Children, and Gifts for Seniors to SPA.
Zhang and Karmaliani then invited speaker Tracy Nielsen, the executive director of HandsOn Twin Cities, to introduce the organization. HandsOn is the oldest volunteer organization in the nation, helping coordinate volunteer opportunities and supporting companies and nonprofit organizations for 105 years. Nielsen engaged the audience with a colorful presentation, explaining the vast array of volunteerism available based on personal passion. For example, one activity that drew much attention from the audience was Fancy Fingers, a task that involves volunteers giving manicures to senior residents. Anybody can use the HandsOn website to search for opportunities based on interest, which many sophomores may be considering after this assembly to fulfill their 10 hours of service requirement.
The next part of the assembly involved a Q&A session with a student panel. Senior Bora Mandic, junior Shefali Meagher, senior Cerena Karmaliani, and junior Elizabeth Tuttle were the four students invited to speak on the panel based on their own experiences with volunteering. Nielsen began by asking whether the group agreed with studies showing Gen Z more willing to volunteer than other age groups. All four students agreed, for varying reasons, for example, more access to information, more awareness about local and global issues, political shifts, and inspiration from other people.
Each student spoke about their journey with volunteering, motivations, and goals. Mandic founded Brikshare, a nonprofit allowing kids to check out Legos, build a set, and return it once done. Mandic wanted to make Legos accessible to all kids because they tend to be expensive, and he also grew up with a love for building them. Meagher and other juniors founded Sincerely Gen 1.5, a nonprofit organization offering tutoring services to immigrant and refugee kids in Minnesota. Meagher recognized that Minnesota was unique due to its large population of immigrants and refugees. However, Meagher noticed the lack of services and organizations catering to immigrant and refugee youth, which was one of the reasons she founded her nonprofit. Karmaliani spoke about her experience traveling to Mombasa, Kenya, for a civic and ethics leadership conference. A major takeaway from her time there was that people need to listen to the residents and those affected to make a difference in a community, not impose their own beliefs. Finally, Tuttle talked about how she started the Cards for Hospitalized Kids club at SPA as it is an easy way to be involved, and it does not take too much time to make a card.
Lasting about an hour, the service day assembly sought to bring home the message that service takes on many forms.
Following the keynote speaker in Huss, students were sent to one of three community service activities depending on advisory. Included in the three was the opportunity to make menstrual care and hygiene kits through Period Kits MN and STAR House respectively.
The gym hosted assembly lines for both organizations, where students were grouped with their advisories to put together care packages of supplies. Period Kits MN sends the packages, which include a 30 day supply tampons, pads and flushable wipes, to women experiencing homelessness and poverty. STAR House acts as a crisis nursery for children, with their kits including child toothbrushes, washcloths and shampoo, to ensure health and safety for kids dealing with housing crises, medical emergencies and domestic violence. Students were also asked to include slips of paper with encouraging words in their STAR House kits; messages included “Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!” and “You’re awesome sauce!”
Each student was instructed to make five kits each in the one-hour slot.
Junior Hugh Adams, who has plenty of community service experience through his time in Boy Scouts, thought that the activity was organized effectively: “It’s definitely nice to have such a large scale because [the activity] clearly went so quickly,” he said.
Adam also enjoyed the hands-on nature of the activity: “I’m glad it was required… and they didn’t just make us sit and watch a presentation,” he said, “I’d rather actually work.”
Across the building, students measured out twine and submerged their hands in glue to make ornaments for STAR House to give to donors as tokens of appreciation. USC members demonstrated the craft–which involved wrapping twine around and across five pins in the layout of a star and stiffening it with glue–before students dove into their work. Students formed small groups or assembly lines, measuring, dipping, and drying their stars with hairdryers.
“I think this was a good way to start the day,” said senior Nathan Rock. “What was fun about this was that everyone was working together.” Rock described the cross-advisory collaboration as a highlight, which he said he would like to see more of in future retreats or school-wide activities.
After a one-hour break that included lunch, advisories made their way to the second set of service activities.
In Schilling, ornament making and kids’ craft packages resumd. Advisories crowded the tables in the gym for period kit and hygiene kit packing. In the English and history classrooms, students spent time creating cards for senior citizens or for veterans.
Most activity rooms held two or more advisories. In the art wing, the junior Peterson advisory was alone in the art wing. Their activity was to create a 30 second video for STAR House, one of the organizations that USC partnered up with for Service Day, to spread awareness about trauma informed care.
They spent half of the hour planning the video before finalizing their creative plan to address stereotypes. The concept they came up with was “Hippo Talk,” with the hippo being stereotyped. Advisee Amanda Hsu took to the smart boards and filled it with drawings of hippos, one of them resembling the baby hippo that took the internet by storm, Moo Deng. Roman Farley, playing the hippo, and Ryan Kari as a regular student performed a short rap. The lesson to be learned from “Hippo Talk”: don’t stereotype.
Students headed to advisory activities or lunch afterwards.
During the advisory activity time on Service Day, advisories participated in a reflection based on the first and second service stations completed in the morning. Advisors were given a google document with questions to ask their students like “What importance do you think service has in our community?” and “What can we learn through service and giving back to the community?”
Advisories also participated in various activities designed to foster team bonding and bring members together. Some advisories revisited familiar games, others tried new activities and some simply enjoyed some time to relax.
The Kinseth and WC advisory spent their time playing New York Times games like Connections. “We usually play these together,” junior Laura Kimmel said. This time allowed advisories to engage in shared interests and enjoy games they frequently play.
Meanwhile, the Stading advisory was challenged by Kubb, a Swedish game that blends elements of bowling and horseshoes. In Kubb, two teams compete to knock over the opposing team’s wooden blocks by throwing wooden batons. For many people, this was their first time playing. “This was a very enlightening experience,” senior Alba Markowitz Mulet said. This activity provided a chance to explore new interests while strengthening existing friendships.
Lastly, the Schwichtenberg advisory opted for a more relaxing and low-key approach. After completing the reflections, they spent time talking and watching YouTube.
Whether through competition, learning or unwinding together, each advisory found meaningful ways to connect during Service Day.
For the third rotation of the service day, many students helped write letters for hospitalized kids, in partnership with the student-led chapter of Cards for Hospitalized Kids founded by Elizabeth Tuttle. Students were given supplies to write these letters, such as markers, crayons, pens and more to create artful and meaningful letters to kids in need. Advisories were split up into groups across the school to write letters with their fellow advisees and enjoy time with one another. Hundreds of letters were made and sent out to hospitalized kids across the area, hopefully making these peoples’ day-to-day life a bit more joyous.
The last activity of the day was the culture fair. The culture fair, which was first started last year, allows students to share their background with the rest of the school. Affinity groups and individual students from varying backgrounds set up tables, offering students a taste from their cultural background through an array of candies and foods. The booth runners also shared information about their culture through conversations, posters, trivia and other activities. Last year, the culture fair’s large turnout led to the decision to split the booths between the cafeteria and the gym this year.
Attendee Senior Lucas Granja enjoyed the culture fair with the different cultures and foods.He especially enjoyed the Muslim student affinity group (MSA) stand for the food provided by Ella Judeh’s family: “Shish was really good at the MSA stand,” Granja said.
Zahra Sait, a freshman, participated in the MSA stand, sharing her culture through henna. “It was exciting to do the henna even though I suck at it,” Zara said. The activity was a hit among participants and many students received henna throughout the fair.
Sophia Obi was most excited to share her culture at the Vietnam stand: “We brought a lot of traditional candy and food from the Lunar New Year.” She also found that the culture fair brings SPA together. “It’s a great place to have a bunch of different cultures and be as a community together, it just makes me feel a lot more welcomed into the community and like people are valuing my culture,” she said.
The fair ended and students stuck around until 3 p.m. to clear up their stands and help rearrange the lunch room.
