Penn Charter Students
Lend a Helping Hand
On Annual Service Day

Penn Charter's Upper School fanned out across Philadelphia on October 18 for the school’s fifth annual Day of Service. About 450 students and teachers volunteered at more than 20 sites, painting, planting trees, cleaning up parks and trails and play areas, and serving meals at soup kitchens.

In Historic RittenhouseTown, students pulled weeds, planted tulip and crocus bulbs, and did general clean up.

“We’re weeding the pachysandra and the surrounding areas because this is the main building where they start all the tours,” said freshman Rob Kolansky. “We’re helping out the community, which is always good. They can always use some extra hands.”

At the Germantown Women’s Y, students removed air conditioning units and insulated windows with plastic for the approaching winter months.

James Ballengee, director of Service Learning at Penn Charter, said the school has done a lot of work at the Y over the years, including painting murals on the gymnasium walls. “You can just imagine the maintenance issues in a building this old,” Ballangee said. “We’ve done rehab, cleaning or painting in almost every room in the place.”

The Inns Yard Park in East Falls also got a little boost. Students painted the park’s sign, and shoveled and spread mulch around trees and shrubs.

“It’s nice to get out with your friends and help out,” said Lee Saltzman, a junior.

Pamela Cash, health and physical education teacher, thinks the Day of Service is a valuable learning experience for students. When they began working in the park, she said, “nobody knew what a spade was, nobody had ever edged before.”

“I think it’s good that we do it as a school,” she said. “Everybody comes back and says, ‘I painted.’ “I mulched.” It’s like anything: many hands make a task light.”

Penn Charter has a tradition of cultivating volunteerism in its students by building it into the curriculum and offering credit for Saturday and after-school community service programs.

“I think it’s great that we get to help out and not get honored for it or paid for it,” said Jeff Boyle, a senior. “You get out in the real world and apply what you learned.”

“I do about 40 hours of community service,” he said. Boyle’s favorite volunteer activity was a mini-Special Olympics. “Just to be a part of that [was rewarding].”

Other organizations for which students and faculty volunteered included Friends of the Wissahickon, Germantown YMCA, Germantown Boys and Girls Club, Greater Philadelphia Food Bank, Sisters of St. Joseph Welcome Center, Nicetown Boys and Girls Club, Emergency and Materials Assistance Program of the American Friends Service Committee, Casa Del Carmen, Urban Bridges at St. Gabriel’s Wissahickon Boys and Girls Club, Greater Philadelphia Book Bank, St. Vincent’s Church and the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness.