On Friday, June 6, Gateway held its 10th annual Community Service Day. Students helped the Gateway and nearby communities in various ways while learning the joy that comes from helping someone else.
Seniors’ community service was a bit different from other grades. All seniors had senior breakfast during which honor cords and yearbooks were distributed. Additionally, the senior montage, a video made from old pictures of the graduating class, was played, and the dedication for the yearbook was announced. Then they went to the elementary schools in the four sending towns: Westville, National Park, Wenonah, and Woodbury Heights. At the elementary schools, seniors were able to meet their old teachers and talk to future Gateway students!
For the rest of Gateway, there were many fun and helpful options for community service! Some groups were picking up trash and landscaping the school, others were cooking, while others were painting kindness rocks. Additionally, students made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for people in need.
Student Council went above and beyond for Community Service Day! Their community service started months ago when they started taking donations for chemo care bags, including items like tissues, lip balm, snacks, and hand sanitizer. Then during Community Service Day they sorted through all the donations and made them into chemo care bags for cancer patients at MD Anderson Cooper Cancer Center.
One option that students could sign up for was a pickleball tournament! Any student could participate as long as they signed up with a teammate and brought certain donations. This was a fun way to spend Community Service Day while still positively affecting others!
Book club members had the option of helping Mrs. Bially sort and organize the library. Although the library started organized, it did not stay perfectly organized, so some members were organizing the books alphabetically. Other members were in charge of cleaning and reorganizing the games so that everything was good for the next school year. Overall, there was a lot of work to do, but with many people pitching in, we were able to finish early!
Everyone finished the day with a hot dogs and hamburgers prepared by Chef and several students. This gave students the opportunity to relax and talk to friends after Community Service Day. Overall, Community Service Day was a major success!
