Students Help Out During Senior Days of Service

In keeping with end-of-the-school-year tradition, seniors spent several days this week in community service, lending a hand at several local non-profit organizations and fulfilling one of core values and principles of the Ranney educational experience: to reach out to others and to see service and social commitment as fundamental aspects of a purposeful life.

While Senior Days of Service marks one of the final events of each student’s Ranney career, it also offers students the opportunity to spend time with the friends they have come to know so well over the years. And so, the soon-to-be 2009 graduates enthusiastically split into groups and headed off to one of three organizations and around campus where they performed duties that included everything from serving meals to planting vegetables.

Camp Oakhurst
Senior Days of Service began on Monday with the entire senior class taking part in a spring cleaning session at Camp Oakhurst (www.campoakhurst.com) in Long Branch, a summer camp for children and adults with physical disabilities. Armed with buckets, brooms and mops, the students spent the morning airing out bunk rooms, sweeping floors and wiping down kitchen cabinets inside the cabins before heading to their traditional senior lunch with Head of School Dr. Lawrence Sykoff. On Tuesday, Assistant Upper School Head Mr. David Fischer returned to Camp Oakhurst with a smaller group of students. Together they tackled the final tasks necessary to get the facility ready for its next group of summer campers.

Impact OASIS
With Upper School advisor Mrs. Joan Fernandez in the lead, 13 students spent Wednesday helping plant crops for Impact OASIS (www.impactoasis.com), an organization that helps people with autism. Middletown Township leases Stevenson Park farmland to Impact OASIS, where farming and gardening are used as part of the organization’s training and assistance program for autistic individuals. Non-disabled peers, individuals with autism, and their families help manage the crops throughout the growing season, including weeding, watering and harvesting. To support their ongoing work, Impact OASIS also sells some of the vegetables and flowers that are grown.

Before beginning work, Barbara D’Augusta, Impact OASIS board member, spoke to the students about the organization’s mission and those for whom they care. The Ranney seniors then grabbed shovels and gloves and took to their tasks with enthusiasm, laying long strips of paper to help eliminate weeds, digging holes and planting dozens upon dozens of rows of carrots, tomatoes, melons and strawberries. Mrs. D’Augusta thanked the students for all their hard work and invited them to see the fruits of their labors by coming back during the summer months to help maintain the crops they had planted.

Lunch Break
Continuing Ranney School’s longstanding relationship with Lunch Break (www.lunchbreak.org), another group of seniors spent the day at the Red Bank food pantry, cleaning shelves, planting flowers and preparing food for the regular weekday lunch service. Led by Upper School physics teacher Michael Dunn, the students donned aprons and hair nets to serve more than 50 meals to needy residents and their families. On a year-round basis, Lunch Break provides hot and bagged lunches, groceries, clothing, health screenings, legal assistance and referrals to Monmouth County families living in poverty. Lunch Break also coordinates an Adopt-a-Family collection of toys during the holiday season, which Ranney students and their families help support.

Kensington Court - On campus activity
The final group of students performed their community service on campus after
their trip to the nearby Kensington Court assisted living center was cancelled due to some residents taking ill. The students made the best of it, however, taking their project outside onto the lawn of the Little White House. With guidance from Fine Arts Director Ms. Kate Greenberg, the students created decorations for Kensington Court’s upcoming Senior prom, including a whimsical backdrop of a Mermaid under the sea. Ms. Greenberg said this was the perfect project for the group to undertake since most of them were enrolled in her Advanced Placement Senior Art Portfolio class.

At the end of two very busy days, seniors headed back to campus, feeling tired but a great sense of accomplishment. It was another very successful and fulfilling Senior Days of Service and a meaningful way for students to spend their final days at Ranney before moving on to college and career.

For additional information on all Ranney School news, please contact the Communications Department at communications@ranneyschool.org.