Sophomores Add Community Service to Their CAP

Northwest Academy sophomores Ryan Richter and Chelsea Batchelor, along with other students, have banded together to form CAP: Community Awareness Project. CAP is a student-led organization dedicated to raising awareness about community issues as well as participating in volunteer work.

“I think volunteering is very important, as I’m pretty sure everyone does,” Richter said. “But I decided to take this into my own hands with Chelsea because I wanted to be part of a group that did something productive, and create a better, more active Northwest Academy [student body]. The aim of CAP is to get people active in their community.”

The purpose of CAP is to help students fulfill the 30 hours of community service required at Northwest Academy between freshman and senior years. The reason for the 30-hour requirement is that the Northwest Academy administration believes in the potential good volunteering has on the community and the volunteers themselves.

CAP meetings are held on Thursdays during lunch in the Main building conference room.

“When you attend the CAP meetings, you learn how to get started volunteering, about other places and opportunities you may not have thought to volunteer at, and [get to know] people you may not normally hang out with,” Richter said. “You learn how you can participate your city to make it better.”

Richter and Batchelor are actually resurrecting CAP at Northwest Academy. Seniors Sarah Dobbins and Mara Rosanne Forsythe-Crane founded Community Awareness Project in 2002.

CAP began in its modern form by accident.

“Chelsea and I walked into Julia Cain’s office to just talk for the heck of it, and she brought it up,” Richter said. “We thought it was an awesome idea, and had some free time, so we made it happen.”

Cain, Registrar and College Counselor, who was the prompter for Richter’s revamp of the organization, feels strongly about it and its mission.

“I’m very excited,” Cain said. “I think he has a lot of great ideas. It’s what the community needs, to look at the big picture and help people.”

Students have responded well to the reenactment of CAP, along with the philosophy it’s founded on.

“I think it’s important for youth, especially teenagers my age, to be taking a stand, really exploring volunteer opportunities, and the various ways we can help our community,” Emma Hirsch, a freshman and member of CAP, said. “I believe it is important for teenagers to help something greater than themselves.”

As far student participation has gone so far, CAP leaders would like to see an increase in both attendance and attitude.

“I would like more people to join, and for everyone to start finding places to go and volunteer,” Richter said. “Perhaps talking with their friends to go as a pair or small group. I want to get people to understand that they can have fun while volunteering so it doesn’t have to be this dreaded thing for them that they are forced to complete. I want them to be excited about it.”

The new CAP tries to adhere to the organization’s original visions and values. For some, continuing the project in its intend form is a way of honoring the memory of its founders. Forsythe-Crane, on of the original CAP founders, was killed by a car in 2012 while legally crossing the street in SW Portland.

Cain is proud that Richter and Batchelor are doing again what Dobbins and Forsythe-Crane started over 10 years ago.

“It’s nice to see [Mara’s] legacy living on,” Cain said.