On October 20, Boylan Junior and Senior classes, 311 students in total, went out into the Rockford community to do a day of service in cooperation with the United Way of Rock River Valley.
The event, called the Boylan Day of Caring, mobilized hundreds of students into 19 different sites in the greater Rockford area. They will be accompanied by 30 Boylan faculty and staff members, also distributed amongst the sites.
All together amongst the 341 total Boylan students and staff doing service, Boylan contributed 1,193 total hours of work to the Rockford community in one day.
Types of work completed by Boylan students today ranges from outdoor work such as cleaning up litter and raking leaves, to packing meals for food banks, to sorting clothes donated to charity thrift stores, to helping with education of recent immigrants. Each student was given 2-3 options of which site they wanted to work with, and was able to choose the one whose project interested them the most.
One great outcome of this event beyond the service done to the community was how the event gave Boylan students a new familiarity with all the opportunities for service around Rockford. In addition to the actual work they did, students spent time at each site to learn about the greater mission of the organization, and what its ultimate goals are for the betterment of the community.
The Boylan Day of Caring speaks to the missions of both Boylan Catholic High School and UWRRV, both of which stress the importance of commitment to service. This event will help educate the young members of our community on the issues of homelessness, immigration, poverty, help for veterans and the elderly, hunger, and how organizations in our local area combat the need in our city and region. Boylan has always included a service requirement as part of its annual curriculum, and looks forward to seeing how this event will expand the school’s impact in the area.
Participating organizations include:
- The Boys and Girls Club
- Burpee Museum
- Camp Winnebago YMCA
- Carpenters Place
- Carpenters Place Thrift Store
- Discovery Center
- Klehm Arboretum and Botanic Garden
- La Voz Latina
- Lifescape
- Milestone
- Poor Clares Corpus Christi Monastery
- The Pregnancy Care Center
- Rock House Kids
- Rock River Valley Pantry
- Rockford Crisis Nursery
- Rockford Rescue Mission
- Rockford Rescue Mission Thrift Store
- St. Elizabeth Center
- Veteran’s Drop Center
Boylan Catholic High School would like to thank the United Way of Rock River Valley for its support and collaboration on this project. There are already plans in motion to have another Day of Caring in the Spring, this time with the freshman and sophomore students getting the chance to do service. Both Boylan and the UWRRV look forward to a great partnership of service to come.
