CSL is Back! By Matthew Principe

Did you know our school has a club where you can go out and do community service for a sweet reward? Its called the Community Service Club (CSL). As a group we venture out into the surrounding communities and see what jobs there are to tackle. 

We meet once a month, usually on a Wednesday. The day can vary from scheduling purposes. In addition to the meetings, we schedule dates in the community to help people-- usually once or twice per month. Last year the club made numerous trips to the Norway Veterans Home which always welcomed us. We played games with the vets and listened to their war stories dating all the way back to World War II.

 Upcoming events this year will be the December toy drive and a possible trip to Poland Spring Campground to paint picnics tables. The campground trip could be rescheduled for next spring. We will be returning to the veterans home later in the winter. We are open for new ideas to help the communities we grew up in.

A Photo from the Boston Trip Last Year

The reward for doing at least 20 hours of community service is an all-expense paid trip to see the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in the spring. From experience, I can tell you the trip is amazing. As a group we travel on a Greyhound bus into Boston with other community service clubs from other schools.  We go on a tour of Fenway and learn all the cool stories about the 100-year-old ballpark. We also get to watch the Red Sox take batting practice, and we get coupons for our dinner. The trip makes for a long day and night, but it also means a day off from school for jobs well done.

Our most recent project was at the Gray Wildlife Park in Gray Maine. Last week was their annual Halloween Night, where you could trick or treat while experiencing the animal night life. The place was covered in Halloween decor as well as many activities for kids to do. One of these was a small obstacle course for the kids to run through. Our job was to clear out the space again and rake all of the straw and hay away from the nearby cages. The design was set up so that  the kids could run next to the little creatures in their cages. Our group received  a surprise visit by Ricky Raccoon, a lone raccoon left in his cage who watched over us as we worked around him.

When our group was finished we raked and swept the walkways from the gate to the cages. There were seven of us and in less than an hour we had about 100 feet of trailway free of leaves and pine needles. l It was a beautiful site. As we finished up our handiwork the head park ranger came and relieved us from out duties. He let us let us roam around the park for the remainder of our time there. It was a nice reward after a long day of hard work. The moose were out and about and put on quite a show for us.

 If you are interested in learning more about the community service club, or if you want to join,  please contact Ms. Carrera at ncarrera@rsu16.org.