The 8th annual Serve Day for Fresno Christian high school leads students into various locations around Fresno and Clovis, Feb. 24. Students and staff take the day away from the classroom to offer their service and help out in the community. Whether students were painting over graffiti or raking weeds in community parks, the opportunity offers a chance to witness the need of Volunteer services.
As Serve Day is only one day of the school year, the hope is for high schoolers to be encouraged to serve on their own time. ENP (Every Neighborhood Partnership) has aided in setting up local non-profits each year for #FCserveday. On their website you can easily find a volunteer project art any time.
Jobelle Nunez, volunteer manager at the Central California Food Bank, encourages community volunteers and donations at any time.
“For schools, we still get them for Saturday events. It’s always nice to have volunteer groups, especially students, during the week.” Nunez said, “We also have a food drive that they can do, and we’ll partner with some of our local non-profits or distributions that are ready, and we’ll connect them so that they can donate their food directly to someone that’s closer in their community, so that they don’t have to drive all the way here to donate.”
Serve Day locations
Central California Food Bank – students spent the day packaging 7,800 pounds of fresh oranges for distribution.
Art of Life Healing Garden – located in Woodward park, students cleaned up and helped with structure repair.
Graffiti – two different locations got a fresh coat of paint alongside the train tracks.
Reading Hearts – students sorting and organizing thousands of donated books.
The Well – gardening, cleaning, organizing, and washing down parts of the new campus.
Cross City – organizing and completing on campus projects.
People’s Church – washing, gardening, organizing and cleaning while also helping build shelves and tables.
Radio Park clean up with Beautify Fresno – helping to clean up 249 pounds of trash.
Discovery center – weeding, cleaning, helping to revive the center
It’s great to see our youth pitching in to help #BeautifyFresno. This time it was more than 200 @fresnochristian students participating in beautification events throughout the @CityofFresno including collecting 249 lbs of trash from Radio Park. https://t.co/SjafAcTUJN
— Beautify Fresno (@BeautifyFresno) February 25, 2022
Many students look forward to this day each year as they are offered this opportunity. Students agree, it feels good to give back.
Sanjay Stephan, ’24
Reading Hearts
“I was looking up all the organizations and Reading Hearts definitely stood out to me because it helped less fortunate families provide a gift for their children,” Stephan says. “I appreciate giving back to our community to those people in need and who need the help. I think serving in our community is important because it gives us a chance to not focus on ourselves but on others.”
Lyla Hinton, ’25
Food Bank
“I think serving in our community is important because there’s a lot of people in need in our community, ” Hinton shares. “Serving is a good thing for us to do in order to help people and to have experiences serving like that. It’s good to know that things we are doing now are actually going to feed people who need it.”
Braelyn Riffel, ’24
Discovery Center
“I do think serving is important in our community, it’s good for people to get together and grow as a community and do what other people aren’t able to do,” Riffel says. “I think they’re worried about what people think of them and that they don’t want to put in the effort to do what they should do. My friends and I just all chose to come here because we thought it would be cool to be here. I appreciate the chance to grow together with my friends and other people I wasn’t as close with.”
Jacob Pimentel, ’25
Park clean up
“I appreciated seeing everyone come together to help serve our community,” Pimentel says. “Yes, it’s very important to step up in your community and help out.”
Madi Bryant, ’22
People’s Church
“The act of serving affects both those who we serve as well as the individual that is serving, ” Bryant says. “When we reach out to our community and serve, we are gaining a wider perspective for ourselves, learning moral values, and filling a need for those around us. I see teenagers who don’t serve and I think it’s not easy to step out, simply because they see serving as such a big project. When in reality, serving is simply volunteering to help someone out.”
Paige Deffenbacher, ’24
Graffiti clean up
“I picked graffiti because it was out of my comfort zone but seemed like a fun challenge,” Deffenbacher shares. “I think it’s important to serve in the community because I’ve been so blessed and the least I can do in return is to help serve when needed.”
Sarah Upshaw ‘23
Art of Life Healing Garden
“I believe serving in your community is a huge factor of your character,” Upshaw says. “It takes a lot to keep a city looking nice, so any contribution you can do, makes a big difference. I chose art because I have a big heart for those struggling with cancer. I lost people in my family due to cancer, so anything I can do to help, I do. I appreciate that I actually made a difference. It may not matter to everybody, but if it makes a few people smile that’s all that matters.”
To read more from The Feather, go to Column: Amplifying student voices in an evolving state of journalism or Student Leadership: Behind the Scenes.
For more Feather photos, visit media, photos 2021-22.
Check out the video below for insight into Serve Day:
