Editor’s note: This is one of an occasional column for readers of the Tri-Town Weekly, provided by members of the Regional School Unit 5 board of directors, which focuses on various positive aspects of the local educational system.

Many Regional School Unit 5 students are actively engaged in a wide variety of community service projects and demonstrate responsibilities associated with civic engagement. Working for a cause or helping others can encourage individual growth, development and maturity, and helps create well-rounded young people who are productive members of society. Staff and parent volunteers have helped to organize and support these efforts.

Freeport High School has developed a vibrant school culture of giving back. While the school does not mandate community service as a graduation requirement like neighboring schools, many of the 480 students give up their leisure time to volunteer for community service projects. There are two Freeport High School groups that have a strong commitment to community service: Interact Club (a Rotary-affiliated youth service club) and JMG (Jobs For Maine Graduates) support local, national and international service projects every year. Other school clubs such as National Honor Society, GSTA (Gay Straight Transgender Alliance) and the Art Club all have community service as part of their missions.

It’s been a busy year at Freeport High School. Students and teachers have been actively participating in a number of community service efforts: the Moonlight Madness Walk Run, on-going school wide recycling efforts, a blood drive and food drives. They help serve First Friday lunches at Freeport Community Services and do sorting at The Clothes Tree Thrift Shop. They do fundraising for the Fit for Charity Walk and the Just Desserts event at FCS. Students are also involved in helping to raise funds for international efforts including the Thirst Project, which helps build wells in Africa, and organizing a talent show that provides funds to the Quaker Meeting House to benefit Friends of Kakamega, which supports an orphanage in Kenya. Students are working with Officer McManus on the One Text or Call Could Wreck it All campaign. They are involved with the Forestry Inventory Growth project at L.L. Bean. International students from Denmark and Germany have visited Durham Community School classrooms that are studying customs and cultures around the world.

Middle-school students have also been engaged in community service projects. Eighth-graders from Freeport Middle School accompanied ninth-graders to work for the Stratton Brook Maine Hut Caretakers in Kingfield, stacking 6 cord of wood and cleaning the hut, cabins and bathrooms. Sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders from Durham Community School have volunteered at the Coastal Humane Society through the JMG program. They have also raised money for the society and the Durham AMVETS.

Even the youngest students in RSU 5 have been actively involved in giving back to their communities. At Pownal Elementary School, admission to the grades 3-5 musical was a donation of canned or dry goods, which were then given to Freeport Community Services. Students at Morse Street School carved pumpkins to raise money for Camp Sunshine. Second-graders at Durham Community School made blankets that were donated at holiday time. Durham Community School third-, fourth- and fifth-graders recently secured sponsors and jumped rope to raise funds for the American Heart Association. On April 16, Mast Landing School fourth-graders participated in “Heartbeats in the Community,” helping out at Freeport Community Services, Morse Street School, child care centers and more. The Soule Wing Student Council at Mast Landing School recently completed a fundraiser for the Coastal Humane Society, collecting 251 items for the animals.

When RSU 5 students are involved in food drives, they often deliver the goods in a creative, celebratory way. Students form a line from their school to the place where the food is to be delivered or a truck that will deliver the food. They pass each item of food from student to student along the line. Durham Community School calls it a food pass. Freeport High School does a Hand to Hand Food Drive.

Through community service, students learn about their communities and come to appreciate the value of civic responsibility – valuable lessons. They actively participate in local, national and international projects. Freeport High School students are champions of community service. As young adults, they are intrinsically motivated to make this world a better place. Younger RSU 5 students are beginning to learn these lessons and, as they get older, they will have even greater opportunities to be involved in community service projects.

RSU 5 board members include Kate Brown, Pownal; Candy deCsipkes, Durham; Lindsay Sterling, Freeport; and Valy Steverlynk, Freeport