Typically Monday of Catholic Schools Week schools celebrate their local community. This day highlights service and involvement of students and community members in making your town or city a better place to live. Here are five easy ideas to celebrate the community:
- Have a community free dress day– Often at our school students and staff will dress in t-shirts highlighting local community organizations or schools. For example, one year students could wear college or high school branded clothes to celebrate the communities they will be part of after their time at our school. We’ve also highlighted local service and athletic organizations like the YWCA etc. by wearing team and fundraising clothes on this day.
- Host a community helpers assembly– Invite firefighters, law enforcement, volunteers, librarians etc. to form a panel and share with your students how they help the local community.
- Get involved in a service project– Host a food drive or fundraiser for someone close to home. Our school partners with the two other Catholic schools in our area to collect toiletries for low income elders. We collect items all week and local seniors receive a box full of goodies on Valentine’s day.
- Make an alumni wall of fame– Have families submit former students for a wall of fame. See how students from your school make a difference in their communities through all sorts of jobs and volunteering. If possible, ask a few how the foundation they built at your school helps in their current work and service.
- Learn the history of your school community– Did a religious order found your school? A bishop, priest or lay person? Have students learn the history of your school and somehow display this. One cool idea would be to give each class a span of years and then create an interactive timeline in the hallways. Each class could create their portion of the timeline however they want!
Does your school have any great ways of celebrating your community during Catholic Schools Week? Have any questions for me? Please let me know by leaving a comment or question. If you liked this post, please share it with someone else.
