On a chilly morning last month, the green woods and parks of Alexandria were dotted with red as students from Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria donned red t-shirts and shuttled to green spaces throughout Alexandria to beautify the local community.
The environmental effort was a part of the school’s first day of service April 19. “We’re working with several community partners to provide a myriad of service opportunities for our students,” said Jon Pressimone, assistant principal of student life, in a video advertising the service day.
More than 900 students attended the environmental cleanup and traveled to 26 locations throughout Alexandria to pick up trash. Several students even visited the Catholic Charities St. Martin de Porres Senior Center and chatted with the elderly. After a morning of cleaning and visiting, the students gathered for lunch and group discussions on the importance of service before heading back to school.
The day of service was closely linked to Bishop Ireton’s spiritual theme of the year, according to Kathleen McNutt, head of school. “Our spiritual theme for this school year comes from the words of St. Jane de Chantal: ‘Be happy in serving our Lord and His holy Mother, serve with boundless joy and courage.’ So while service is an important part of Bishop Ireton’s mission as a Catholic school, we sought to serve in a special way this year as a full school community,” she said.
McNutt added that the day of service demonstrated to students the importance of serving the broader community of Alexandria. “It was inspiring to see our staff and student body come together with joy, whether it was picking up trash, cleaning graffiti, pulling weeds or visiting a senior center. That day was impactful and one that we will continue,” she said.
Juniors Amelia Adams and Cayleigh Marzluff were excited to not only miss a day of classes but also serve a good cause.
“I was surprised; we had never done anything like this before, and it was interesting and something new. But I really think it is cool for the whole school to come together and do something like this,” said Adams.
“It teaches really valuable lessons, and I think it’s so cool that we get to do it so close to where most of us live. It gives you perspective on how much service can be done in your community,” Marzluff added.
For senior Catherine Couri, the day’s service was an addition to her already extensive involvement in service. “I’m in Beta Club, in which basically we do a lot of things, from donating costumes for Halloween to food pantries, giving to mothers in need, and then creating Christmas care packages, sending cards to people who are elderly or cannot get out of their homes for the holidays,” she said.
Couri’s dedication to service helped form many of her high school friendships. “Service at Bishop Ireton is really like a community, in a way,” she said. “Everyone in the school gets together, we find all these projects, and there are multiple service clubs throughout the school.”
Adams and Couri corroborated that for teens who often feel isolated, community service is essential.
“I think service is important, especially for Gen Z, because it gets you out in the community, it gets you out meeting people, it gets you out talking to people who might not have the same life as you. It gives you perspective that you can’t really see through a phone, and it gives you a real connection that you also can’t generate through a phone. It’s nice meeting people face-to-face and just being in the world that you live in. And the nice thing about service is that it gives you a memory. You can say, ‘Oh, remember that time I found an iPad in the river?’ ” Couri remembered with a laugh. “It gives you that memory.”
