On March 6, the Youth Community Service (YCS) club held its annual service day. Students signed up to volunteer at events across the Bay Area, many of which are headed by nonprofit organizations that partner with YCS to provide an opportunity for students to engage in community service work.
These events included removing non-native invasive plants from a beach in Half Moon Bay, preparing and serving lunches to the homeless in a soup kitchen and participating in a habitat restoration project. This year, two new locations were added: students could help out underprivileged youth at the Lauren’s House 4 Positive Change or assist the elderly at the Sunrise Senior Center.
YCS adviser Mark Hernandez supervised this year’s YCS Service Day. According to Hernandez, this year’s service day was really well-planned and all of the student leaders did a very good job. “I’m really impressed how committed and resourceful the leaders are,” Hernandez said. “They did a really good job securing positions, getting permission slips and any number of administration tasks that are very time-consuming. They do them all very fastidiously and very earnestly.”
Much of the planning is done by the student leaders. Hernandez stated that he has a minor role compared to the student leaders. “I do a lot of the admin stuff like signing forms and sending emails to the staff but all of the planning is done by the students,” Hernandez said.
Senior Victor Liu attended the Half Moon Bay Beach cleanup. According to Liu, he felt that the service day provided insight into how invasive species are a serious threat. “I thought the whole event was really fun,” Liu said. “We helped get rid of the foreign plants and learned the impact they could bring to the beach ecosystem. Spending some time on the beach was a big plus as well.”
Senior Stephanie Do volunteered at the Padua dining room where volunteers helped prepare lunches. “I think that volunteering where there are people at your service site is an awesome feeling because you get to directly experience the impact you’ve made on the community,” Do said.
