Service Day Coming to Northwest Academy

On April 24th, Northwest Academy high school students will take a day off from classes to volunteer around Portland. They will be able to choose from multiple opportunities with options ranging from pulling ivy to working with Meals On Wheels.

“You’ve cleared ivy in Forest Park, you’ve helped at Tryon Creek, you have spent time at The Downtown Chapel, you’ve worked at the Bicycle Transport Alliance [and] you’ve worked with Meals On Wheels,” Robbie Carver, High School Activities Director, said.

While most of these opportunities are organized by Carver, other teachers occasionally arrange some of the volunteer options.

“I’m in charge of most of it, [although] sometimes the teacher will take initiative to create a service of their own,” Carver said.

The idea of a service day came from a middle school tradition that the high school students wanted to adopt.

“It was kids who said, ‘You know what, that’s such an important thing to do,’” Mary Folberg, the Head of School, said. “Middle schoolers do two service days a year; why aren’t we doing any?”

Folberg also said that the students wanted the service day so they could bond with classmates and friends.

“Some of the kids thought that it was really fun to do some of these activities with organizations with their friends,” Folberg said.

Carver believes that giving back to the community will strengthen the students’ connection to their community.

“We are a downtown school and we are part of this city,” Carver said. “Part of being a good citizen and [a] part of our community is giving back. Even though it’s a small thing to only spend one day [volunteering], it is an important and symbolic thing to head back out into the city and be part of the city and be giving service.”

Folberg agrees that it is important to give back to our community.

“We all live in this world and we all affect each other and I can tell you that most of your teachers believe in service because they do it on a daily basis with kids,” Folberg said. “All of us in our life have found that a certain amount of service and giving back to organizations that are deserving is very rewarding.”

This annual service day is just one of many volunteer opportunities organized by Northwest Academy that allow students to help the city during and after school hours. Many of these options have been facilitated by student clubs such as the Green Team and CAP who have organized two volunteering opportunities for the school.

In addition, the high school has a service requirement where students must perform 30 hours of volunteering around the city in order to graduate.

With all these opportunities available, it seems that volunteering will stay a practice at Northwest Academy for many years to come.