Letter: Middle School's Community Action Groups Make a Difference

Even though 40 hours of community service is a high school graduation requirement at the Dover Sherborn Regional Schools, the outreach and engagement of students in the community begins much earlier, specifically in the middle school’s 8th grade with Community Action Groups (CAGs).

Frederick Randall, Dover Sherborn Middle School’s Headmaster, had an idea based on his own experience as a pre-teen in his hometown of Wayland. That experience had made a lasting impression on him, and he had a feeling it would do the same for Dover Sherborn kids. It was a volunteer program encouraging kids to be good citizens and Mr. Randall says it was a way “to make a difference in our own backyard."

Three years ago, Mr. Randall took his idea to eighth grade team leaders, Donna Bedigan and Kathy Moloy (teachers who are the main points of contact for the grade). They and other teachers worked together to create a service element that was tied to the curriculum.  As a result, the study of US History, Science, and Technology includes a focus on 5 qualities of citizenship: Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Courage and Compassion.

Last year, eighth grade students formed CAGs around their interests and brainstormed ideas for how they could get involved in their own community. With teachers’ help, students transformed their interests into “hands-on” volunteering, planning for a day of service in the spring, and implementing the ideas of each CAG. This past spring, students spent a day making a meal for people at a senior center or helping out at a homeless shelter, community farm, animal shelter, zoo, veteran’s hospital or respite care facility.

This year, the students have asked for more service days and their wish has been granted. They will be brainstorming ideas, conducting research, making phone calls, making decisions, getting rides from parents, etc. for an additional service day this spring. Whatever community service they do, students and teachers always make sure their volunteering supports the idea of “think globally, act locally.” Eighth graders’ culminating trip to Washington DC gives students the opportunity to see how that same perspective helps grown ups affect positive change.

Students learn a lot from their involvement with CAGs. Lily Grogan is part of the Hungry and Homeless CAG and says she has learned that “working together [can] make the community a better place.”

Emme McCabe feels “fortunate that our school has provided us with the time and resources to make a difference in our community.”

It sounds as though these students will have the same lasting impression that their headmaster had as a youth and are well prepared for their high school graduation requirement. They have already started making a difference in their own backyard!