St. Mark’s empowers students to make a difference and instills a lifelong practice of service to others.
St. Mark’s considers community service essential to a complete education. Our community covenant, an expression of our school’s identity and values, developed by our students, and upheld daily by the entire community is as follows: I am a Child of God. All people are Children of God, therefore I will treat them in the way I wish to be treated. I will treat all people with respect.
St. Mark’s Episcopal School believes in the value of service, both within the school setting and in the greater community. Volunteering, be it opening car doors at drop off, reading in chapel, or performing random acts of kindness, are natural extensions of our curriculum and covenant. St. Mark’s students make a huge impact on the greater community as well. In the spring of 2015, St. Mark’s “Jump Rope for Heart” effort raised $30,000 for the American Heart Association. With the help of our generous families, “Service League”, our student run service organization collected and sent over one hundred pairs of shoes to Haiti. Middle school volunteers prepare and serve 150 meals monthly at St. George’s Soup Kitchen in Riviera Beach. Individual classes adopt needy families at Christmas time. The entire school participates in various community service projects throughout the year, such as holiday toy and food drives, donating “Coins for Kenya” and Halloween costumes for “Little Smiles.” Through service opportunities, St. Mark’s builds awareness beyond self, exposes students to the needs of the less fortunate, and equips children with the tools and compassion necessary to give back.
SERVICE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
ST. GEORGE’S SOUP KITCHEN - Students attend soup kitchen on a monthly basis and prepare and serve food to approximately 150 people in need.
ST GEORGE’S SOCK DRIVE - St George’s clean feet program washes and provides clean socks for homeless in the Riviera Beach area.
COOKIES FOR KIDS’ CANCER BAKE SALE - Cookies for Kids' Cancer is a national non-profit organization, committed to raising funds for research to develop new, improved treatments for pediatric cancer, the #1 disease killer of children in the U.S.
HALLOWEEN COSTUME DRIVE FOR LITTLE SMILES - Little Smiles is a volunteer driven, non-profit children’s charity. Its mission is to help children in local hospitals, hospices, shelters and other like facilities. With the guidance of local professionals such as doctors, nurses, child life specialists and social workers, Little Smiles strives to help children escape their unfortunate circumstances, even if only for a short period of time. The costumes are used in the hospitals and shelters to allow these children to have a Halloween too.
COINS FOR CHRISTMAS - Coins for Christmas is a shopping, caroling and gift distribution outreach event. Students raise money through various fundraising events and coin collection to provide gift cards and some basic Christmas cheer to those in need. Families are selected through St George’s Church.
SUSAN G. KOMEN RACE FOR THE CURE - A team enters the race, raising money to help find a cure for breast cancer.
LOWER SCHOOL HELPER PROGRAM - The goal of this program is to provide assistance to the kindergarten and first grade teachers and to bridge the gap by creating interactions between ‘the big kids’ (middle school students) and the lower school students. Each day, three or four middle school students use their lunch time to go into one of the lower school classes. Each of the kindergarten and first grade teachers receives one day of help per week. The teachers have the middle school students interact with the lower school children in a number of ways. This may include the middle school students reading to lower school students, or allowing the lower school students to practice their reading skills. Also, students play mathematics games, or help lower school students use mathematics manipulatives to solve problems.
COSTA RICA SERVICE LEARNING TRIP - This trip is a Christ-centered, life-changing activity, designed to be a cross-cultural adventure of learning and mission. Missionaries share the good news of Jesus Christ with the children of Costa Rica in Vacation Bible School sessions and help build bunk beds for families in need. Through immersion in a different culture and way of life the St Mark’s students learn to appreciate the relationships and things they have at home.