Fontbonne Academy's New Service Day Brings Anti-Bullying Message to St. Agatha's

About 100 Fontbonne Academy students, the junior class and the senior members of the National Honor Society, set out into the community on Wednesday, April 24, for a day of service. The "Ducks in Service Day" sent groups of students to nursing homes, food pantries and schools, including St. Agatha's School in Milton.

Seniors Callie Cabral, Cindy Truong, Christine Carroll and Emily Devane were joined by seven Fontbonne juniors for an interactive anti-bullying program for sixth graders. The high school students interacted with three individual classes for an hour each on Wednesday morning.

Carroll said one of the reasons that students chose Fontbonne Academy for high school is the low incidence of bullying, so she felt attached to this program.

"Fontbonne is just so strong," said Carroll. "We wanted to spread it."

As part of her Social Justice project, a Fontbonne Academy graduation requirement, Truong took on bullying and helped develop the workshop that was used at St. Agatha's. She said it was important to create something fun and not lecture the middle schoolers.

The Fontbonne students moved the classes seamlessly through activities and then had discussions afterward. 

In one exercise, the six graders drew a face on a piece of paper and were told to crinkle and fold it. They saw that what they had done to the paper, like bullying, had changed the smiley face they drew. A Fontbonne junior took the discussion a step further, crunching up a crisp five dollar bill. When asked why they still wanted the crumpled money, one student said, "it still has worth," proving the point that bullying victims may be hurt, but they are still valuable.

To end the session, the group split into small circles of Fontbonne and St. Agatha students to discuss the day.

"We got some really insightful comments," said Troung.

While this group was at St. Agatha's other Ducks were around the South Shore and Dorchester working with 10 local organization. 

Cabral, one of four National Honor Society officers, said the idea was pitched last year by NHS vice president Julia Butts. While running for office, Butts considered the tenants of the NHS, character, service, scholarship, and leadership, and proposed a school-wide day of service.

"Ducks in Service Day" was a pilot of the proposal involving just one class that was flushed out by the 2013 NHS officers: Butts, Cabral, Maretta Morovitz and KJ Moran.

After the activities at their sites, the students went back to Fontbonne to discuss and reflect on their service.