'Tis the Season for the Gift of Service
December 13, 2024
As a means of igniting lives of purpose, ESD incorporates service learning into its curriculum, teaching and encouraging students to give back to their communities. Since early November, even our littlest Eagles have participated in drives and projects that help members of our greater community.
The first week of November, our third-grade students led the lower school students in the North Dallas Shared Ministries Food Drive, allowing them to practice thankfulness and make a positive difference in their community. Our lower school students collected items such as canned fruit, macaroni and cheese, cereals, granola bars, tea and coffee, canned meats, hygiene items, and much more to combat food insecurity in Dallas County.
To continue this season of giving, our middle and upper school students contributed to the Prism Health Thanksgiving Dinner Project, filling a grocery sack with a complete Thanksgiving dinner. These dinner bags included stuffing, corn, rolls, and more, and our students were able to make an impact at Prism Health (the largest nonprofit HIV/AIDS service organization in North Texas). Students not only collected dinner items but also wrote encouraging notes for the recipients of each dinner bag.
The sixth grade led the final service drive for middle school students this semester. Over the course of a month, middle school advisory groups each filled two holiday boxes to support St. Phillip’s Community Center. These boxes included food for a holiday dinner, such as hot cocoa, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and other foods, but they also collected cleaners, sponges, and foils. As a part of their service project, our sixth-grade students will hand deliver the holiday boxes to the neighbors of St. Phillip’s Community Center.
Finishing the semester, the Community Service Council sponsored an Angel Tree this year where upper school students picked up a boy or girl gift tag and purchased gifts for their “angel.”
Director of Community Service Learning, Courtney Phelps, reflected on the service drives and projects, stating, “If ESD is a community where everyone is in the nest, then our local and global community would be the tree, which ensures a stable and thriving environment for the inhabitants.” She continued to explain that service is an outward depiction of our connection to one another and that giving to one another expresses our concern for the well-being of others.
“The call to serve is a privilege. It allows us to build the kind of world we want to live in, and it transforms both the giver and the receiver through a deeper understanding of the shared existence fostered in all of us,” Phelps said.
