Children, when shown the value of service to others, have an impressive and natural capacity to work to help others. It doesn’t matter if it is a friend’s house, a gravesite, a creek, or a church building– every act of service helps them learn and grow. By encouraging our students to act on the ideas that they have to help others, they are learning to serve and love others. Cleaning our Parish Church, while it may seem a very simple task, it is a very powerful experience in the process of learning to give what you have -in this case, our second graders’ time and effort- to help others.
Following an established monthly schedule, students are tasked with duties such as cleaning the pews, door handles, make sure each section had the right amount of hymnals and donation envelopes, etc. Through this service project, they get to feel that they are doing a good deed not only for the people who attend the church like many of them do, but for God as well, being that the church is His home and a place for worship. It is fantastic to see how seriously our students take their tasks of how proud and happy they are after seeing their job well done. The satisfaction they feel in their hearts makes them want to do more for their community or just volunteering in general.
In addition, this project also develops additional skills such as their attention to details, their responsibility, ability to work with others and gives them a different perspective of doing their own chores at home: as an act of service and love to their own families.
