Service Hours At St. Joe

At Bellarmine, part of the student experience is to perform service hours in the community. Each student is required to do at least 15 hours of community service -- half of which must be completed by December, and the balance before the end of the school year. Each grade has a specific service they need to provide. For freshmen, they need to work with younger children.

Wednesday was an off day in school, but students were expected to make use of the day for their community service. That's exactly what Jake did. A couple of weeks ago, he sent an email to the principal (Mrs. Mendoza) of his former middle school (St. Joseph) and requested her if he could perform his community service there. He was directed to coordinate this activity with the school's Special Needs Coordinator (Mrs. Vieira), who then accommodated his request.

So yesterday, with his ex-classmate and fellow Bell, Nick, Jake went to St. Joseph to perform his service. I dropped him off at Nick's house in the morning so he could get a ride to St. Joe. With various activities going on at SJS this week, Jake only had until 12:15pm because of early dismissal. He was assigned to help out in the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th grade classes. After dismissal, he proceeded to Kid's Club and helped out Mrs. Blondin for the next 3 hours. At the end of the day, he logged in 7 hours. Same with Nick. Then, Nick gave him a ride back home.

Today and tomorrow, Bellarmine does not have classes. Jake planned on taking this opportunity to continue his service hours and complete the required 15 hours. Since no one else was going to St. Joe today, I dropped him off at Mission Coffee in the morning, where he hung around and had breakfast before he proceeded to SJS. This time he worked with the much younger kindergarten and 1st grade kids, before moving to Kid's Club after the 12:15 dismissal. In the afternoon, he was picked up by Coach Lou, where he assisted in the volleyball practice of the 5th grade girl's team at Irvington Community Center. With his stint at school today, he had already logged 14 hours.

Tomorrow would be his last day at St. Joe. All he needs is an hour. But if he stays for the rest of the morning, he would have more than enough for the entire year. This means he doesn't need to go to Kid's Club in the afternoon. But since he is going to be the only one there, I don't know how he will go home. He either walks home or hangs around at Kid's Club until I pick him up late in the afternoon. If there is a BART strike tomorrow, I will be working from home, and I will be able to pick him up at 12:15pm.

Next year would be a different challenge -- working with seniors (I think). Do I hear BINGO?!?!?! Well, we'll have to wait.....

Note:  Author wishes to acknowledge St. Joseph School for the use of the illustration in this post.