Gabe Novak and Nora Bash (both ‘21) sort canned food in the Middle School Commons for Mount Hood Climb Service Day.
Service Learning Coordinator in 2003. “At the time OES was looking to increase the role of service learning in the Upper School, really looking to change the program. Tey made a huge commitment.”
Still, the school’s dedication to service learning predates Schauffler’s tenure. As she puts it, “Power for good has been in the mission statement for a very long time. Te school has long been committed to what we’re doing programmatically from the very youngest of students all the way up to graduation.”
When asked what service means to these three professionals, either in the context of OES or in their own personal lives, each educator has a different answer—but their answers have common threads.
“Service takes the ‘what’ into the ‘what now’ or ‘what next,’” shares Haferbecker. “It’s like the Grinch moment where his heart grows three sizes and breaks the frame.”
In all three divisions, students drive the service work. “Every year literacy, and access to literacy tools, comes up as an issue the Lower School students want to address in their community,” Haferbecker explains. “Tey say they can’t imagine a world in which books are not available, and we want to honor that— which is how the partnership began with Te Children’s Book Bank. We’re really trying to create a heart connection that manifests in action.”
For Russell, service has been an evolutionary process. “In my life as a professional and even as a young person, I was very involved in thinking about issues of equality and social justice, and how to teach those values. Tinking about how to teach these values has been fascinating.”
Middle School service learning is currently a combination of established and new endeavors. “At this point practices are changing in the sixth grade a little bit,” says Russell. “We’re just starting this year to work with Zenger Farm, thinking about how food moves and how that shifts based on where you live, and what kind of grocery store you
can access.” In seventh grade, the classes help prepare meals at Loaves and Fishes; the eighth grade students travel to Blanchet House, which focuses on providing food, shelter, and social services to those experiencing poverty. Additionally, there are three all-Middle School service days.
“To me, service is what you do,” reflects Schauffler. “It’s how you live a life. I have always seen ‘hands to work’ as almost a magic pill for community and character building.” Schauffler has woven this thread of service throughout her various educational roles helping students make community connections.
OES Upper School students work with myriad nonprofits. One in particular stands out to Schauffler though: the connection with Clay Street Table. “We really ended up having a profound effect on their neighborhood community when we were there helping at their food pantry. When some of the older, Asian people started coming in to access food and to volunteer their time, the regular staff couldn’t communicate with them because they didn’t speak Mandarin. But our OES kids did.”
As a result, Clay Street Table now holds a once- a-month Asian Breakfast with Mandarin classes from all over Portland in attendance. OES students shop for groceries and cook a wide assortment of foods for the breakfast, including traditional dumplings. “Our
students have really made it happen, stage by stage,” Schauffler marvels.
FFF
Te late spring 2016 sun is shining on a podium set up in front of the iconic OES Belltower, where the entire school—Pre-K through 12 students, staff, and faculty, along with parents, alumni and other guests—have gathered to usher in the school’s 30th annual Mount Hood Climb Service Day. Each May, this day honors the lives of the OES students and employees who were lost in a climbing accident on Mt. Hood in 1986. As a way of showing thanks and giving back to those who helped OES during that challenging time, every member of the school community participates in service activities. Schauffler explains, “It’s different from everything else we do. Te meaning of that day to me is that it is the school’s response to a tragedy that essentially brought us to our knees.”
After an opening reflection by Chaplain Craig, Calla Slayton ’16 steps up to the podium. A student at OES since Pre- Kindergarten, Slayton shares some pertinent thoughts of author Rachel Naomi Remen before the entire OES community departs for its day of service. “When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. Helping and fixing are not based upon a relationship between equals. Service, however, is a relationship between equals. Fixing and helping are draining. But service is renewing. Fixing and helping create a distance between people, but we cannot serve at a distance. We can only serve that to which we are profoundly connected.”
The OES community gathered in May 2016 for the 30th annual Mount Hood Climb Service Day. Winter 2017 25
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