Spotlight on Community Service

In 2007-2008 Santa Catalina Upper School will continue its history of community service by designating four full days of community service and supplementing those opportunities with after school volunteer work throughout the school year. Led by Upper School faculty member and Community Service Director Stacy Rotta, each class (freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors) will spend a full day completing specific service-oriented activities designed to make best use of interests and talents. During their community service days in 2006-2007, classes volunteered at a selection of sites, including Dorothy's Kitchen in Salinas, where they helped prepare food, cook, assemble sandwiches, and set up and clean up the eating areas.

Also visited were the St. Vincent de Paul's Thrift Stores. These stores receive donated goods to sell and then return the proceeds to the community. Students organized displays, took inventory, priced categories of goods, and freed regular volunteers and employees to work out in the community.

The Salvation Army Youth Center and the Ave Maria Convalescent Center were additional recipients of attention from the Santa Catalina volunteers. At the youth center, students were delighted to help kids with schoolwork, play sports, create arts and crafts, and even cook a simple breakfast meal. During their visit to the convalescent center, students sat with elderly residents, and helped with other planned activities.

Students were also able to work with Ag Against Hunger in Marina and the Gateway Center in Pacific Grove, a residential facility for special needs adults. At the Gateway Center, students have begun the process of painting a world map mural for the facility dining room, and some residents have been able to participate.

With the Harbor Project, students were taught to recognize, hunt for, and then remove an invasive form of algae that is choking out natural marine wildlife and endangering the habitat. Other students spent time at the STAR Riders facility in Corral de Tierra, which helps special needs children with therapeutic horseback riding.


Santa Catalina Upper School students will be keeping a similar community service schedule during the 2007-2008 school year. Along with returning to the sites above, possible new sites include Point Lobos and ALBA. These groups of dedicated girls have made community service an integral part of Catalina life.