On Wednesday, April 30, all Milton Academy students fanned out across campus, the town, and sites in Boston, to serve the community.

“Community Service Day is an opportunity to acknowledge the great work our student volunteers do all year,” says Andrea Geyling, the community service faculty coordinator. “It’s also a chance for the community to become aware that Milton students are willing and eager to make meaningful contributions to the community.”

In all, about 600 students traveled to 31 sites as well as staffed on-campus events; they walked and talked with the elderly, helped out at day care centers, performed yard work at Milton’s Town Hall, sorted food at the Great Boston Food Bank, walked dogs at the local animal shelter and helped Boston personality Sidewalk Sam beautify the city of Boston with brightly painted murals.
Sites where students perform service throughout the year also include Rosie’s Place, a shelter for women; the Higashi School, a residential school for autistic children; Mujeres Unidas en Accion, where they help Spanish-speaking women learn English, so that they may find jobs and gain independence; and Milton elementary schools, at which Milton Academy students lend their expertise in French to tutor children in the French Immersion Program.

“Doing service gives me an overwhelming feeling of empowerment,” says Claire Tinguely (Class II), who is student leader of the Community Service Board. She says that the work has also been educational: “I knew nothing about AIDS, really, until I worked with Children AIDS Project. I have a younger brother and these children—despite living with AIDS—had a lot of the same kinds of needs.”

Throughout the academic year, a 15-member student board runs the School’s program. “The students drive this effort,” Andrea Geyling says. “They help identify the opportunities, advertise them to the student body, and organize the details with the volunteer sites. I facilitate this process by coaching them through the logistical work and making sure transportation needs are met. The dedication of numerous faculty, staff, and parent volunteers is also critical to the success of our program.”

Milton Academy students began performing community service in an organized way in the 1950s. Now, half of all Milton students voluntarily give their time either through weekly service or at one-time events such as hosting Special Olympics, managing a blood drive or fund-raising on campus for Operation Smile, an organization that offers reconstructive facial surgery to children in developing nations.

For more information on the program, contact Andrea Geyling (andrea_geyling@milton.edu) or Claire Tinguely ’04 (claire_tinguely@milton.edu).