BLOOMINGTON, IN — Per annual tradition, approximately 80 Tri-North Middle School 8th grade students participated in Global Youth Service Day on Friday, May 1. Students volunteered for two hours at locations throughout the community, including Community Kitchen, Hoosier Hills Food Bank, Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, My Sister’s Closet, Habitat ReStore, Opportunity House, Wheeler Mission, and the City of Bloomington Parks & Recreation Urban Greenspace.
Tri-North social worker Morgan Terry coordinated the day, with support from teachers, the Tri-North Parent Teacher Organization, administration, front office staff, student services, transportation, custodial staff, and a graduate assistant from the IU O’Neill School of Public Affairs.
“This day has been something that Tri-North has done for a long time and is an important part of our community and culture,” said Terry. “Our PTO has been integral in starting and continuing this project. Now they support it financially — the PTO provides snacks and t-shirts for all of the students.”
Three Tri-North students shared their reflections.
“I volunteered at My Sister’s Closet, and I felt like we made some meaningful connections there,” said Tri-North student Bella Jester. “They said they would love to have us all as interns next year.”
“My favorite part was sweeping up the shop at Habit ReStore,” said Xander Koop. “I don’t think we would have gotten as much done if we weren’t such a big group.”
“My favorite part of volunteering at Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard was getting to go outside and do some physical stuff,” said Edith Irvin. “I think you can make a difference with one person, but you can make a bigger difference with a bunch of people. Having all of us here today, I feel like we really helped.”
June Taylor, volunteer coordinator at the Community Kitchen, said she appreciates the Tri-North students’ help and hopes they enjoy the work.
“I welcome the opportunity to host every year,” said Taylor. “I think that if students come in and they have a good experience here, it’s not so scary to think about coming back on their own, so I want them to have a good experience and learn a little bit about who we serve.”
This year, some of the people they served were fellow students across Monroe County. Student volunteers assembled bean soup mix bags for the Community Kitchen Backpack Buddies program, which provides food assistance to students in need over the weekends.
“Right now, we’re distributing about 557 backpacks each week,” said Taylor. “The social workers in the schools identify the families who want to participate.”
Tri-North teacher Nicholas Mark consistently volunteers as a chaperone for the service day.
“It’s one of my favorite things in the world,” said Mark. “I love this trip so much because not only is it an opportunity to help our community, but it also sheds light for the students who may not know some of the needs of the community.”
Mark said the service day helps students gain perspective and confidence.
“Every year, students have such a good time volunteering that they go back outside of school,” he said. “Getting them connected to something that they may not have had the courage to do just by themselves — I think that’s wonderful.”
Once again this year, the service day has inspired students.
“It was really fun and if I could, I would definitely do it again,” said Jester. “We got to see how we could help in our community. In the future, I think I will be volunteering.”
“I would definitely encourage seventh graders to do it next year because it’s time going out in the community and helping people,” said Koop.