Today marks the beginning of National Volunteer Month. Yeah, no fooling.
It might just give us all the impetus to do something a little soul-cleansing, and some of us need that more than others.
Need motivation? Check out the students at Trinity Christian Academy in Addison.
These kids could couch-plop or worse during their off hours from classes, but instead they step up into the community and work to make it a better place than they found it.
Last school year, the upper school student body put in a collective 23,035 community service hours, according to a press release from TCA, or an average of 48 hours per student, which means they have, oh, like, more than 100 students enrolled in the upper school.
This is not just easy, namby-pamby volunteer work such as picking up litter in a neighborhood park or something, not that that’s not a worthy cause.
They travel to places like Paraiso, Divino, Sol Nascente, Barreirinha, and Itapeacu — villages about 200 miles from the nearest city, Manaus, Amazonas, and excuse me while I look that up … oh, Brazil — distributing school and medical supplies, attending to basic dental needs, engaging with residents, and building cross-cultural bonds.
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They take care of business on the hometown front, too. Senior Nancy Turtletaub, for example, last year organized and executed a summer camp for girls in West Dallas, and she funded it by writing letters to community members. She also marshaled about 40 volunteers to help run the camp.
Yup, fine examples, indeed.
Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. He tried overachieving once. He didn’t like it.
