ConVal High School's Day of Service is a bi-annual (fall and spring) community service activity. The Day of Service is organized by the student members of the National Honor Society under the guidance of their advisor, Social Studies teacher Amy Rushford. The purpose is to dedicate a portion of the day for students, teachers, staff, and administrators to complete volunteer work with nonprofit organizations and local government facilities.

Participants choose from over 50 opportunities, with two thirds being done off campus in the various towns of the ConVal School District. These projects include, among others, cleanup efforts along Route 202; work with the Recreation Departments in Antrim, Greenfield, and Peterborough; volunteering with the police stations in Bennington, Hancock, Peterborough and the fire departments in Antrim, Peterborough, and Temple.

Additional community service options are available in the libraries of Dublin, Francestown, and Peterborough. Intergenerational connections are fostered through interacting with individuals at the retirement communities of Pheasant Wood, RiverMead, and Scott Farrar.

Other area non-profits that benefit from ConVal’s Day of Service are the Antrim-Bennington Food Pantries, the Avenue A community organization, the Cornucopia project for farm-to-fork education, the End 68 Hours of Hunger food bank, the Grapevine community resource center, the Harris Center for Conservation Education, the Mariposa Museum and World Culture Center, and the Monadnock-at-Home program which helps seniors address the challenges of maintaining independence at home.

Underscoring the spirit of mutual support as one learning community across the regional school district, volunteers travel to and assist in classrooms at both middle schools and all eight elementary schools.

On the ConVal High School campus, Day of Service participants engage in a variety of grounds cleanup, gardening, and campus beautification projects, such as painting murals and building benches for additional seating during outside lunch. The Lucy Hurlin Theatre stage, control booth, and front of house area as well as the Music Room are among the favorite student destinations for work.

In classrooms, they connect to write encouraging cards for Operation Care for Troops, create No-Sew Blankets for Project Linus, send cards to hospitalized children, and make animal toys for the Monadnock Humane Society.

Each year, students, teachers, staff, and administrators come away from these Day of Service activities with a profound sense of accomplishment and the satisfaction of having made a tangible difference in the community.

Please see the Day of Service photo gallery below. If you are interested in providing an opportunity for community service to be performed at your location, please contact Amy Rushford at arushford@conval.edu.