Service learning and philanthropy support the School’s mission and the Goals and Criteria of the RSHM Network of Schools. Service learning is a method of teaching, learning, and reflecting that combines academic work with meaningful service to others. The students’ participation in philanthropy necessitates the giving of their time, talent, and in some cases financial resources in the service of others, especially the powerless, the deprived, and the marginalized.
Marymount was recognized with Second Place honors in the Council For Spiritual and Ethical Education’s 2009 Community Service Awards Program in the category of Excellence in Elementary School Programs. Read more about Marymount’s community service in the Lower and Middle Schools here.
RSHM Ministries
Every year, Marymount raises on average $20,000 per year to send to support the ministries of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary in Zimbabwe. The funds raised are used to feed the poor and hungry and to pay for the education of many children in this ravaged country. For more information about the RSHM in Zimbabwe, click here.
Many children have expressed their thanks in letters to Sister Margaret Treacy at the orphanage. One, from a boy named Tafackwa Mhondiwa going to school in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, reads, “I write this letter to you because I would like to thank you for paying my school fees. When the time came that you paid my school fees, I was feeling like I have my parents because of you. So God bless you. I think He will give you more days to live on earth. I will thank you with all my heart.”
Youth & Philanthrophy Initiative
Class X students at Marymount have the opportunity to be the first students in the United States to participate in the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) currently implemented in over 250 schools in Canada and the UK. Founded by entrepreneur Julie Toskan Casale, Marymount’s 2010 Commencement speaker, YPI allows students to learn about the theory and practice of philanthropy by guiding them step by step through the process of analyzing and addressing social problems.
YPI is integrated into Marymount’s pre-existing Social Justice course and financial literacy curriculum. Students learn about philanthropy as one key response to social issues in New York City. In groups of four, they research in depth a social issue, determining its root causes and imagining possible solutions. They then single out and highlight the work, vision, and mission of one small direct-service organization responding to that social issue. Through on-site visits, interviews, and analysis, students research how this organization operates with regard to “finances, ethics, and accountability.” Eventually, the students prepare a detailed request for funding, which they present in a intramural competition to an independent judging panel before the entire Upper School. One of these finalist teams will be awarded $5,000 to give to the charity they represented.
Fall Activities
Youth Service Opportunity Project (YSOP)
Class X spends the year studying social justice and completes their community service requirement. To launch their commitment to serving the community, the Class participates in the Youth Service Opportunity Project (YSOP).
Click here for the story and photos of this year’s YSOP.
Lower School students are invited to participate in Truck or Treat for independent schools, in which children collect money while trick-or-treating to give to City Harvest, an organization that collects surplus food from all areas of the food industry, including restaurants, manufacturers, and corporate cafeterias, and distributes it to hungry New Yorkers, aiding over 260,000 people each week. Students are given a money collection box, designed to look like a City Harvest truck, and money they collect while trick-or-treating will help to feed hungry children all over the city. In 2009 Marymount students raised $1823.23 in change for this project!
Middle School students join the annual Kids’ Charity Fun Run each fall. The Marymount team of student runners joins their peers from across New York City to run in Central Park. Runners are grouped into age divisions, and with sponsorships they raise money for the Ronald McDonald House of New York, an organization supporting families with children diagnosed with cancer. In 2009 the Middle School students raised over $10,000 for this cause, a record in Marymount’s many years of involvement.
The Thanksgiving Food Drive, an annual service project at Marymount, involves students in all divisions of the School. Coordinated by the religious studies department with assistance from the students in Campus Ministry, each homeroom class and advisory group collects canned and dry foods to fill a basket of Thanksgiving nourishment for a family in the Incarcerated Mothers Program, a family program of Edwin Gould Services for Children. Marymount faculty and families contribute to a “turkey fund” that allows the School to purchase a turkey for each of the fifty-five families for whom the students have filled baskets.
Winter Activities
Throughout the month of December, Marymount sponsors a Sock and Glove Tree. Members of the school community donate socks, gloves, hats, scarves, etc. for the homeless in New York City. Since 2003 the garments collected at Marymount on the Sock and Glove Tree are brought to the Yorkville Common Pantry (YCP). Located on East 109th Street, YCP is dedicated to reducing hunger while promoting dignity and self-sufficiency. YCP champions the cause of the hungry through food pantry and meal distribution programs, nutrition education, basic hygiene services, homeless support, and related services. Located on East 109th Street, YCP’s community-based programs focus on East Harlem and other underserved communities throughout New York City.
Middle School students regularly bring joy to the Kateri Residence, which each class visits individually twice per year. Just before Christmas, all Middle School students, faculty and staff visit Kateri for holiday cheer and carolling. The Kateri Residence is a nursing and rehabilitation center at 87th Street and Riverside Drive sponsored by The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York.
The Christmas Toy Drive is an annual project of the Lower and Middle Schools. Each homeroom buys Christmas gifts for children in the Incarcerated Mothers Program. The goal is to provide each child with two gifts.
Upper School Students collect money in advisory groups to purchase gift cards for teens of families in need through Stockings with Care, a teen-to-teen program that answers the needs of the many adolescents in families who cannot afford to provide their teens with Christmas presents. Stockings with Care is a not-for-profit organization that assists families either living in homeless shelters or who are in jeopardy of becoming homeless and can not afford to celebrate their holiday.
The A-to-Zimbabwe Reading Project in the Lower School encourages students to read books with their families by giving them the extra incentive of raising money for children in Zimbabwe. Families can decide how much they would like to donate for each book they read together; they can give fifty cents or a dollar per book. Sometimes families choose to send a check for a set amount that they would like to donate. The families are given a sheet on which to record books they have read.