Shorecrest Prep Has a Week of Community Service

ST. PETERSBURG - Shorecrest Prep concluded a week of Community Service Thursday in St. Petersburg, involving 300 high school students in volunteer work from March 7-10.

Volunteers offered their services at a range of nonprofit organizations in the Greater St. Petersburg area. These included Habitat for Humanity, SaddleUp Equine Assisted Therapy, the Ronald McDonald House, the Moffitt Cancer and Research Institue, Great Explorations and Sweetwater Farms Center.

Students stuffed Teddy bears and sewed blankets for patients at Gulfcost Oncology. The young volunteers prepared a meal for cancer patients staying at the Hope Lodge while undergoing treatement at the Moffitt Center on the USF campus, in Tampa. They worked on exterior siding and interior trim on houses that are being built by Habitiat for Humanity.

Shorecrest always has made volunteerism and learning service a core part of its mission. But in 2007, students lobbied the school to create an entire week dedicated to community volunteering. Then they organized and developed a program that was launched in 2010. This is the second year, with students in Grades 9-12 participating.

Some of the volunteer work will extend beyond this week. A group of students, for example, will host an Empty Bowls luncheon, in early April, on the Shorecrest campus. The students crafted the bowls, and local restaurants are donating soup. Proceeds will be given to the St. Petersburg Free Clinic Food Bank.

In addition, five Shorecrest seniors are doing volunteer work at a Habitat for Humanity site in New Orleans. Another 17 students are in Guatemala, working on a coffee plantation, to support the community of workers and their families there.

"Serving others is part of the Shorecrest education," said Su Stevens, director of Service Learning. "Because students wanted to expand the concept, and set up a program that would be sustainable from year to year, the school was able to commit to the idea."