Commitment to Service

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat

God does not ask of us the perfection of tomorrow, nor even of tonight, but only of the present moment.

From the earliest days of the Sacred Heart schools, a commitment to serve others has been deeply ingrained in the mission and practice of a Sacred Heart education. Two centuries later, the world’s need for compassionate and humane service is even greater, and the depth and breadth of charitable activities undertaken by Sacred Heart students is extensive.

List of 4 items.

Service @ SHS
At SHS, service is a vital component of nearly every academic and extracurricular program, and from preschool through grade 12, students serve the local and greater community in a variety of ways each year. From the high school football program’s annual “Fun in the Swamp” event working with local athletes with Down’s Syndrome, to the lower school’s “Sandwiches on Sunday” program to feed the hungry, to the middle school involvement in “Street Church,” working with the region’s homeless population, Sacred Heart students are learning the context and meaning of social justice and broadening their awareness of individual responsibility.

A sample of regular SHS service programs include:
- Campus Kitchen (national)
- Coastal Cleanup
- Valpo Fun Run (with Menlo School)
- HeArt Exchange
- Tutoring
- Warm Items & Toiletries Collection
- Holiday Food Baskets Drive
- Giving Tree
- Sandwiches on Sundays (SOS)
- Street Church
- Soccer Skills Clinic
- Bridge Walk for Uganda
- 7th Grade Service Fair
- Sprout Creek
- Fun in the Swamp
- Alumni Service @ Ronald McDonald House
- Director’s Day (SHS faculty/staff)
Serving Abroad and in the U.S.

Service immersion programs and advocacy projects are another way students are deepening their environmental and ethical perspective and exercising their potential to act for positive change. Annually, high school students can travel to help in the rebuilding of hurricane-stricken New Orleans, work with and learn from former gang members at Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, lobby for humane immigrant rights and programs in Washington, D.C., and engage in missionary work supporting local populations in Peru, to name a few. And, in recent years, middle school students have had the opportunity for service-travel as well, in locations such as Costa Rica, and the Society’s Sprout Creek Farm in New York.
A Community of Service

Service is not just a part of the student experience. Annually, families engage in a variety of school-coordinated service activities, fundraisers, and clothing and food drives, and each year, the entire SHS faculty, staff, and administration participate in a dedicated day of service, contributing labor to a number of local organizations serving those in need.
Partnerships
Through dedicated projects and cultivation of reciprocity, SHS is proud to partner with the following service agencies and educational programs, among others:
- St. Vincent de Paul Society
- St. Francis Center of Redwood City
- St. Anthony’s Dining Hall
- Siena Youth Center
- Street Life Ministries
- Peninsula Bridge Program
- St. Elizabeth Seton School
- Second Harvest Food Bank
- Special Olympics

Service Learning Program
Integrating service with the LMS & SHP educational experience
HeArt Exchange
SHP enrichment program for underserved students from Siena Youth Center
Network Summer Service
Providing opportunities for students to participate in summer projects around the country