At this month’s Parent Association meeting, Waterford parents gathered together to hear from faculty and students about community service at Waterford. Below you will find transcriptions of the speeches given at the meeting.

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Speech given by Rosy H. ’25, Student Body Vice President of Community Service:

Hello! My name is Rosy H. and I am the Student Body Vice President of Community Service. To start my speech, I want to tell you not about myself, but about Alliah Cernal. Alliah is a girl my age who lives in Payatas, Philippines. Through an organization called Philippines Humanitarian, my family sponsors Alliah and a girl my sister’s age. We have sponsored Alliah since she and I were both around nine years old. As a part of our sponsorship, we send letters, money, and goods to Alliah’s family and she always responds with beautiful handmade cards and long and appreciative letters.

Despite our vastly different lives, Alliah and I have grown up with similar interests. When we were in Lower School, we both enjoyed art and crafting, and when we got to sixth grade, we both started playing volleyball. And now, she is also on track to start college next fall! Growing up alongside—but on other sides of the world—as Alliah, I have become aware that although the world is extremely diverse, it is possible to find commonalities with each other.

Through our sponsorship, my family taught me that service is a way to connect with and become a part of wider communities. Because of this, I have gone out of my way to become involved in community service. Even walking dogs at the Humane Society of Utah, I have talked with other volunteers and gotten to know people, and dogs, outside of my usual school and family communities. 

But more impactfully, was my experience volunteering at the New Roots Program last summer. New Roots is part of the International Rescue Committee and works to both combat food insecurity and help refugees become economically independent. Refugees receive plots of land and gardening equipment to grow food for their families and sell their extra produce at markets.

I worked alongside a refugee, Nadia, who is my age. As we spent our Saturday mornings sitting together and distributing tokens for produce, we connected over our similar stories of playing team sports. Despite coming from different backgrounds, we were able to find commonalities and see each other as equals. For me, connecting with others is the most important part of community service. 

I am so lucky to be at a school that has similar ideas about volunteer work. From Lower School all the way to Upper School, community service is a fundamental part of Waterford’s values because it provides opportunities for students to meet new people, both who are part of the school and in the wider Salt Lake area. For example, my sophomore year the Community Service Council put on a pumpkin and apple sale, which were donated by Mrs. Mortenson, a Middle and Upper School history teacher. Before the sale, members of the council helped pick pumpkins and apples from Mrs. Mortenson’s plentiful garden. Through this task, I learned that she is an avid gardener and everyone involved was able to get to know each other better.

Additionally, Waterford has put on many trips to For the Kids, an organization that provides meals to children whose families can not afford food. Whether it is with a Community Service Council group or the Waterford Lacrosse team, by working to pack meals, every participating student and faculty member became closer through this act of service.

I have loved being involved in every project with the Community Service Council, but every year my favorite event is the Joni Jensen dinner. The dinner was originally called the Tolstoy Dinner and was started by Kelley Heuston, Nancy Heuston’s daughter, to provide dinner, clothing, and food to recent refugees in Salt Lake. Joni Jensen was a Waterford parent who adopted two refugee children and was very involved in the Tolstoy Dinner. Joni passed away from cancer in the mid-1990’s and the dinner was named in honor of her and her service.

At the dinner, the Waterford community welcomes refugee families and we all share a meal traditional to their culture, craft, and play games, particularly basketball. Through these activities, we are able to hear each other’s stories and find commonalities. We all share fundamentals like food and family, and through this are able to see each other as equals, just as Alliah and I, and just as Nadia and I, have been able to.

At the end of the Joni Jensen dinner, our school community provides the refugee families with a gift basket including sports equipment, blankets, and gift cards to help them in their transition into the Salt Lake community. They have completely uprooted their lives, and coming from our stable and privileged backgrounds, it is important that we help them become comfortable and active members in our shared community. This year, our Joni Jensen dinner is this Friday, November 8th, and we will be hosting a Muslim Scout Troop. 

Waterford is so special in the emphasis it places on community service as a way to help others while appreciating and respecting the diversity of our larger communities. No matter our race, wealth, or even political standpoints, service is a way for all of us to look past our differences and come together to make a positive impact.

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Speech given by Amy Dolbin, Director of Community Service:

My name is Amy Dolbin and I am the Director of Community Service for Upper School. Waterford has played a large part of my family’s lives for a long time — I have 5 children, all who started here at the school in PreK-3 and have since graduated and I now have 2 grandchildren who attend in Lower School. My husband and daughter teach math and my daughter-in-law teaches 3rd grade, so Waterford continues to play a big role in our lives.  Some of you may know me from my 17 years that I worked as registrar and in student scheduling but I actually decided to step back from that position a couple of years ago and I’m so grateful the school let me take on this role. I have always appreciated that Waterford provided our students service opportunities, and I often participated, but now I really get to jump in and I love it! 

The most rewarding part of my job is watching your children discover the joy of service and their desire to have it as part of their lives. And I know that many of you, as parents, have instilled this in your children and it is part of your families. I also think, for some of these students, they are discovering this for the first time.

Research has shown that service can bring many benefits beyond the obvious of helping those you are serving, including:

• Service provides a healthy boost to your self-confidence, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Volunteering can also give you a sense of pride and identity. 

• It raises social awareness (example: hunger in Utah, refugee situation)

• Builds friendships and CONNECTIONS!

• A way to show gratitude and appreciation.

My experience in participating in service with students is something they want. In fact, last year we had about 40 Upper School students that signed up for Community Service Council and just a handful would come to our meetings each week. This year we have well over 100 students — and they are coming! They want to be there! And part of this may be attributed to the fact that they don’t have their phones this year and they need something to do — but they are engaging. They are full of ideas and enthusiasm.  

Last year, in winter term, we decided that we would have a service project for all of the upper school students during Morning Meeting, not just the ones that show up to Community Service Council. We took a day for each grade to come together and make 100 adult to-go lunches for the Road Home. The response was incredibly positive! I heard over and over again, “this is so fun” and “I wish we could do this more often!”. So we decided that we SHOULD do it more often and we began having a service project in Morning Meeting once a term. It has been a pretty big undertaking, especially because we only have 15 minutes, but the rewards have definitely been worth it. In spring term, we put together newborn mother kits for women in Guatemala. This fall term, we collected art supplies and put together kits for the organization Common Thread, which serves teens who are mostly in foster care and have experienced a lot of trauma in their lives. Along with this project, the students wrote personal notes of encouragement to the teens, which caused many to get out of their comfort zones, but I also think this was the most meaningful part. Beyond the joy that the students feel from serving, it also helps them to be aware of the needs in their community, helps them think outside of themselves, to develop empathy and appreciate what they have, and what I hope most of all, is it helps them recognize these needs on their own and have a desire to help.  Our desire at the school is to not only have lifelong learners, but also lifelong community builders! 

As we plan these service events, we are really trying to make them hands-on activities. These are much more impactful, as you can imagine. While it may appear like we are continually having different drives or asking for donations, I want you to know that we are not collecting them just for the sake of collecting. It is hard to provide these opportunities without some supplies and these collections allow your students to then have these hands-on experiences. For me, just as important as the service that these activities are providing, is that the students are having a positive experience. For example, we recently had a bake sale to raise money for hurricane relief. We raised over $2000—which is so awesome, but also a drop in the bucket for the amount of aid that is needed. But our students were so proud of themselves, and were so happy about the result, as they should be! And they had such a good time. We had so many students just jumping in and seeing what needed to be done, and helping out. Another recent project a group of our students participated in was going to a home in West Valley the Saturday before last where they worked hauling limbs along side members of a Muslim Scout troop, who will also be our guests at this year’s Joni Jensen dinner. They had such a good experience and they happily chatted all the way back to the school on the bus about how they want to do more Saturday service projects — it was amazing! And an added bonus was that the homeowners had written the sweetest note to our kids, expressing sincere appreciation for an overwhelming task that they couldn’t have done on their own. Rosy has already shared some about the Joni Jensen Refugee dinner next week, but other projects we have planned before the holiday break include Sub for Santa shopping for a family in need and heading down to the organization For the Kids to pack weekend food bags. And of course, we have much more planned for the rest of the school year.

Even though I am technically only over Upper School CS, we try to involve MS and LS whenever we can, such as with our candy drive, and collections for the Joni Jensen dinner, our coat drive in January, tying fleece blankets, etc. More than anything, my hope is that our students all recognize how truly blessed and privileged we are, and because of this, we have a responsibility to give back, to lift the burdens of others, and to share. And when we do, we really are the ones that benefit more than anyone!

So today we will have the privilege of participating in the same service that our students did last winter term, and will do again this winter term — we will make 100 to-go lunches for the Road Home. We actually do many activities revolving around relieving hunger because it is a real thing in Utah and 1 out of 9 students don’t know where their next meal will come from. This is a need that is often overlooked and we try to educate the kids how much hunger affects everything else in your life — school, sleep, social life, family life, contributes to anxiety and depression, etc. The Road Home actually asks for 100 lunches a day, which they do not get, but it is a real need.  Many of the individuals staying at the shelter may be away from the facility during meal times for a variety of reasons — employment, doctor’s appointments, job interviews, housing applications or inspections, etc. — and these lunches help  to ensure that everyone has a chance to eat. These lunches will be delivered this afternoon for distribution tomorrow.  Thank you!