Volunteer Week: Students Create Care Packages
This week is National Volunteer Week (18 – 24 May), where we acknowledge the generous contribution of our nation’s volunteers.
It is uplifting to know many of our Santa Maria students are regular volunteers in the community through their compulsory service programs. Many go above and beyond their compulsory hours because they enjoy the benefits of volunteering. These include:
- making connections and enjoying relationships with others
- increasing self-esteem
- learning valuable skills
- it can also bring fulfillment to one’s life
- provide a sense of purpose.
At the moment, completing their Years 10 and 11 Service Programs has been challenging for our students. With restrictions in place, it means students are not able to visit agencies such as aged care homes and childcare centres.
With most of these agencies closed because of COVID-19 regulations, some students took up an opportunity to complete their service in a different way. Chorus Fremantle gave students the challenge to create a personalised box, filled with items to give to their volunteers who needed to self-isolate. The girls filled boxes with personal notes, hand creams, candles and home-made craft items. These boxes showed appreciation for the work volunteers do at Chorus. They were very grateful for the students’ thoughtfulness.
Year 10 student, Georgia Law, one of the students involved in the project said, “I’m lucky to have all my grandparents and three great grandparents, so an activity like this meant so much to me.”
Other students involved were Abby Young, Ava Hitchcock, Annika Ting and Liliana Galipo.
The College received the following lovely responses from some of the volunteers.
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Author: Santa Maria College
Santa Maria College is a vibrant girls school with a growing local presence and reputation. Our Mission is to educate young Mercy women who act with courage and compassion to enrich our world. Santa Maria College is located in Attadale in Western Australia, 16 km from the Perth CBD. We offer a Catholic education for girls in Years 5 – 12 and have 1300 students, including 152 boarders.
