Tuesday the entire Notre Dame Academy student body and teaching staff will be making trips around the city of Green Bay for a day of service. The sites include nursing homes, parks, various middle and elementary schools, public businesses and other sites in need of service.

                  “I’m very excited for the eventful day,” explained sophomore Dana Warpinski. “I’m going to Paul’s Pantry with some buddies and it will be fun to be able to help out the poor of Green Bay through service.”

                  Every year, Notre Dame sets aside one day of the school year for service. The day still counts as an academic school day, but instead of teaching students the importance of service in the classroom, students are taught the importance of service by spending a day out in the community actually doing the service work.

                  “I think it’s really cool that we can switch up the typical school day by helping out Green Bay for a few hours,” said junior Austin Vieth. “It’s a lot of fun for the students, yet very educational at the same time.”

Notre Dame provides sign-up sheets with a first-come, first serve-policy. But for a lot of the students, the location is not the important thing. It’s the opportunity to be able to help out the community while having a good time with friends.

                  “The Service Day is hands down my favorite school day of the year. It’s fun to help people out when you’re in a unique, laid-back environment,” said sophomore Abby McCormick, who will be traveling to Jim Martin Park in DePere this year to do her service work.

                  The annual service day is very iconic of NDA’s five core values, especially service, respect, and responsibility. Don’t think for a minute that the day is just a free-for-all for students to run around.

For the men, many sites require three hours of non-stop labor, such as raking leaves or doing yard work. And for the women, there are a wide variety of sites that focus on taking care of children or interacting with the elderly.

Service Day, originally a Student Government-led experiment with only 150 students going out in service, has evolved into a full-school experience. Many parents volunteer to supervise and assist the service teams.  Originally, Service Day had a pledge requirement for students, but five years ago that was dropped and the day is totally service for the community.

Mrs. Donna Clement in the Main Office coordinated the sites and assignments this year.  In the past a committee of parent volunteers made the arrangements.