Most students here know that La Salle’s motto is “Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve.”
Service is undeniably a huge part of attending school here. La Salle’s service program “strives to awaken a sense of social responsibility in all students, especially the most privileged, and to assist them in responding to the Gospel call of Christian service,” according to the school website.
At La Salle, there is a 20-hour annual service requirement. According to Ms. Brianna Freitas, the Campus Ministry Assistant, 10 of those hours must be providing basic resources for underserved communities with an organization outside of the school, and students can choose to do all of their hours in this category, however, “many students are choosing to split it 50/50, and do it 10 hours to an outside organization and 10 hours within the school,” Freitas said.
All of this is tracked on MobileServe, an app where people can efficiently log hours and keep track of the service opportunities they’ve participated in. But what does this look like? What are students doing to complete those 20 hours and graduate?
Sophomore Daniel Garbitelli fulfills much of this requirement in the library. As a peer tutor, he helps people — mostly freshmen — who are looking for additional support in their classes. “I peer tutor French 1, Intro to Catholic Christianity, Algebra 1, Geometry, World History, [and] English 1,” Garbitelli said.
Garbitelli doesn’t just do tutoring though. He also helps his mom, a third-grade teacher at Christ the King, by grading papers, an experience that he found humbling.
“It was very humbling to see third graders struggle with, in their homework, basic multiplication, basic division,” Garbitelli said. “I take it for granted that I know division, that I know multiplication, yet you have people that struggle with that.”
To Garbitelli, service is a critical part of the human experience.
“If you don’t serve someone, if you don’t serve God, if you don’t serve your fellow human beings, you’re only serving yourself, and when you’re self-serving, the only person that really matters to you is yourself,” Garbitelli said. “So I see service not as something painful, not as something awkward, but a deep expression of what it means to be human, and sacrificing part of your time for someone else.”
Last October, freshman Michael Montecucco volunteered at “Trunk-or-Treat,” a Halloween event in Milwaukie where truck drivers dress in costume, decorate their trunks, and fill them with candy. Montecucco’s job was to restock the trunks with candy and guide people to the trucks.
“You had carts and you’re pushing them out, and they just had a ton of candy on them, like the big package, the kind you get from Costco,” Montecucco said.
In December, Montecucco also helped put together bundles of Christmas gifts for children whose families can’t afford gifts on their own. “Younger kids, they got the really thick picture books, stuffed animals, toys, and when they got older, they got Nerf guns,” he said.
For Montecucco, while helping people was the best part of these opportunities, something else that made it enjoyable was spending time with people he already knew. “The two times I did the services I listed, I was with friends and people I knew, so it’s kind of fun to help people while also doing it with your friends,” he said.
Service is also very important to Montecucco because “sometimes people can feel like no one really cares for them. If they were in a bad position and no one was really doing anything to help them, they may feel kind of lost or just alone,” he said. “And when we as people help them, even if it’s just a little thing like giving them water, they feel hopeful.”
Freshman Brooklynn Akerson has done most of her service hours at the Blanchet House, a nonprofit that serves meals to homeless people.
For Akerson, the highlight of volunteering at the Blanchet House is the people. “At the Blanchet House, you can plate the food, serve the food, make the food. It really depends on what they assign you to,” Akerson said. “The ones I have done are plating food and giving, and every single time someone says ‘thank you’ and they’re all just so sweet.”
Akerson highly recommends volunteering there for anyone who still has service hours to fill. “It’s really good, because you’re giving back to the community, you’re helping those in need, and you’re being what it means to be Lasallian,” she said.
For Akerson, service isn’t just about graduating. “It’s important for me to go out and help people because I know if I were in that situation, I would want people to help me too,” she said.
While senior Grace Moore hasn’t completed any community service this year, in her junior year she spent almost 30 hours volunteering at the Blanchet House. Like Akerson, her favorite part of this experience was the people.
“You just meet really nice people who kind of share their stories of why they’re there and what happened,” Moore said. “I think it’s a good way to get your service hours done, and it’s a good way to open up to people and learn things about other people.”
This year, junior Laura Brotherton has done around 100 hours of community service. Her secret? La Salle summer camps.
“I worked with two different La Salle summer camps. One was a full-day, it was the arts program, and then I did a half-day, that was an arts and camp, like an arts and crafts thing,” she said. As the teacher’s aide, she would help set up and clean as well as supervise campers.
While she didn’t appreciate getting up at 8:30 a.m. in the summer, or the 100 degree heat, Brotherton loved the teaching aspect, especially as someone planning to go into education. “I just really enjoy teaching, and also I love arts and crafts,” Brotherton said.
For Brotherton, once you meet all of your personal needs and are in a stable place, “you should give back to your community,” she said.
