Paying It Foward
Seniors give back to the community by participating in Senior Service Day.
May 14, 2021
Last Wednesday, May 5, seniors participated in Senior Service Day.
During this day, students participated in many volunteer activities, including planting trees at the water treatment plant, pulling weeds and planting shrubs at the tree nursery, mulching at Baum Park and the Beckman Complex, raking and pulling weeds at the Delaware County Fairgrounds, cleaning the pool at the Aquatic Center, and raking and mulching at Tirrill Park and the West Delaware school grounds.
Senior Service Day started nearly 10 years ago with Megan Jack, a West Delaware social studies teacher at the time. For the past few years, Principal Tim Felderman has administered the event. He collaborates with Doug Foley, of the Parks and Recreation of Manchester, to create a list of activities and locations for the seniors to volunteer their time.
“The community provides a lot of opportunities, experiences, funding, and mentorship for our students,” Felderman said. “This is just one very small way that our students can give back for the 13 years of support from the community.”
Not only does the community benefit from these acts of service, seniors also enjoy spending the day with their entire class—which is something that has been scarce this year due to quarantines, online learning, and hybrid schedules.
“I went to the tree nursery and planted trees. My favorite part was the people I got to do it with,” senior Melanie Loughren said. “I saw some of my friends that I hadn’t seen in a while due to online school.”
Senior Kaley Pettlon also enjoyed spending time with her class.
“It was fun with the group I was in. We made the most of it,” Pettlon said. “My favorite part was hearing Jacob Hosch yell ‘BRICK’ every time we were moving a brick.”
Alissa Holtz, another senior, went to Tirrill park and the Aquatic Center.
“It felt really good to help the community,” Holtz said. “I like to work outside, but I learned that mulching is not my thing.”
