By: Bhoomi Jobanputra
This year’s second annual Day of Service was led by junior Sophie Weisz in partnership with the Awareness Club. Students had the opportunity to participate in hands-on service projects that benefited local organizations while learning the importance of giving back.
Inspired by similar volunteer events she attended at the Mid-Island Y JCC on Martin Luther King Jr. Sophie wanted to bring those same opportunities directly to her peers at the high school.The goal of the Day of Service was “to create opportunities for growth in community service involvement among students in the Syosset Central School District,” she said. To Sophie, service is about “making a consistent effort to improve the world around us.” Throughout the cafeteria, students worked alongside peer volunteers to create projects for different community organizations. Participants wrote cards for hospitalized children, crafted pipe cleaner flower decorations for nursing homes, made beaded keychains for women’s shelters, and created yarn cat toys for the Town of Oyster Bay animal shelter.
Beyond Syosset, the event also supported a variety of local causes and organizations. Sophie worked with the Girl Scouts of Nassau County to expand the Day of Service throughout the district as part of her Gold Award project. Her passion for volunteering motivated her to organize the event after noticing a decline in youth service engagement following the COVID-19 pandemic. “I wanted to address this issue by eliminating barriers to participation in service activities for my peers,” she said.
One of her favorite parts of the event was seeing students genuinely excited to get involved. Sophie said, “I loved when the booth was so busy that you couldn’t really hear anything. It was a bit chaotic, but I enjoyed seeing so many people passionate about making these projects together.” She hopes students left the event with “an increased understanding of the importance of service and a desire to continue working to better our community.” She believes programs like the Day of Service help foster empathy and compassion among high school students.
