BATH

From 9:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m., Morse High School freshmen spent most of their Thursday volunteering at more than 30 different organizations located in Bath, Georgetown, Phippsburg and Woolwich, giving back to the communities that are helping them grow and thrive.

Johnna Stanton, an English teacher at Morse, coordinated the first community service day event 14 years ago with the support of teachers and guidance counselors, as well as local community members.

“We saw a need for a community service component to the ninth grade experience and asked the community for help in making it a reality,” she said. “I hope this event will be another step in connecting ninth graders to our community and fostering positive relations between the teenagers of RSU 1 and the community members who do so much to support us.”

In preparation for the event, local organizations like the Bath Skate Park, The Freight Shed, Fisher Mitchell School, The Plant Home, among many others, were contacted in advance and students were assigned to a particular site after listing their top three site preferences.

Senior Leia Graves served as a student leader on Thursday as she and freshmen Leah Totman and Emily Sharon helped clean bookshelves and tables at Patten Free Library.

“The community gives us, as students, a lot and I think it’s my responsibility to give that back,” said Graves.

Morse seniors, including National Honor Society members, volunteered to serve as chaperones during the community service day.

“It’s kind of nice to see the roles reversed,” Graves said, recalling her experience when she was a freshman. “Time really flies.”

Graves, who is from Woolwich, said the event helped her become familiar with Bath, and she also met a community member during the event who wrote her a college recommendation this year, “so it really all ties together,” she said.

Overall, students had positive things to say about the event.

“It’s a pretty cool idea,” added senior Cassie Lambert. “I think it’s a good thing for students who don’t usually get this opportunity.”

On Thursday morning, Lambert worked together with freshmen Ben Willertz and Caitlyn Ware to weed the grounds at Druid Park, which is owned by the Department of Cemeteries and Parks in Bath.

Gerry Coombs, who regularly volunteers her time at the park, supervised the student volunteers.

“It’s a wonderful help,” said Coombs. “We appreciate it so much. As you know, gardening is time consuming, but weeding is also a very time consuming job.”

Due to the students’ work, Coombs said she and the other volunteers will be able to plant 30 geraniums as early as Tuesday to brighten up the park.

“Because this little park is at this busy intersection, where so many cars come and go all the time, it needed a beauty spot,” Coombs said with a laugh.

Morse freshmen Sebastian Hale Krull, Connor Bennoch, Brian Weidner, Elijah Damon and Korban Angwin also worked outside on landscaping projects at the Bath Family YMCA, which involved laying out mulch and compost over garden beds and raking and clearing up branches. The students were chaperoned by Phippsburg Police Chief John Skroski.

Chris Radtke and Dawn Gillig, workers at the local Starbucks at Cook’s Corner in Brunswick, were also present to volunteer their time after Francie Tolan, the development director at the YMCA, invited Radtke and the rest of the staff to participate in the event.

Tolan was pleased with the turnout of the event, and especially with the student volunteers.

“The nice thing is that many of these kids have grown up at the Y,” said Tolan. “So for them to come back and help, I think it makes them feel really good because this is a place they’re at all the time.”

“It’s pretty fun to know that you’re getting exercise and helping out too,” added Weidner.

In addition to the hard work of the students, it is clear that plenty of other community members and volunteers made this day possible, setting an example to these students and other young people in the community.

Coombs said it best when she said, “It’s a community effort and we’re all volunteers.”