Serving our Community (Through a Pandemic)
Story appeared in the 2020 issue of QMS Connections Magazine.
BY CARRIE CRAIG, HUMANITIES TEACHER & SERVICE COORDINATOR
The 2019-2020 school year started like most and we quickly set the tone of the importance of service at QMS. We have a long standing tradition of service to others and encourage students to demonstrate our school motto, “Serviter Fortiter” (Serve Ye Bravely) in their daily lives. The Senior School Service Day in October featured 160 students working throughout the Cowichan Valley on projects such as apple picking, participating in the harvest at Providence Farm, clearing paddocks for Cowichan Therapeutic Riding, and helping in the urban farm with the Cowichan Green Community. Some Grade 11 students mentored children at Khowhemun Elementary through Big Brothers Big Sisters Cowichan Valley, and on-campus, students volunteered at the School’s annual Christmas Bazaar. They freely gave their time to the Equestrian Centre, helped in the library, and score-kept at basketball games. The positive feelings of service permeated our school hallways.
Then our world changed. The emergence of COVID-19 led to an interesting paradox: How could we continue to instill the value of service in our students and meet the growing needs of our community while still keeping our students physically and emotionally healthy? The pandemic also led to questions such as: How do we define service in a time of pandemic? What can we do from home?
After brainstorming, we jumped into action. Kim Phillips, Humanities Teacher, and I challenged all QMS staff to donate to Nourish Cowichan who was working hard to support Cowichan families in need by ensuring they were fed. With a generous match of funds by our Head of School, QMS raised over $4000! We expanded to include activities that students from K–12 could complete from home. We asked for them to create Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards that could be delivered to care homes in Ladysmith to ensure that elderly members of our wider community received cards and kind messages while separated from their loved ones. Our students and families answered the call!
We were heart-broken to cancel our Annual Service Day yet, in its place, we hosted our first Service in Spirit Day. Student leaders created a fun video outlining the different ways families could participate from home, which was supported by engaging QMS Kindness Cards (similar to bingo cards) that students used to practice acts of service. Students donated food to the SPCA, helped neighbours with their gardens, looked after younger siblings, and knitted hats to be donated this winter. Our students truly demonstrated their commitment to supporting others and were excited to share their acts of service.
Our 2020–2021 school year brings another question: What does our new reality mean for the future of our service program? We have overcome large challenges in recent months, and it has provided us with the chance to refresh our program. This is a time of great uncertainty and we know that the need for service in our homes, school, community, and around the world will be great. Our compassionate, dedicated, and locally and globally minded students are up for the challenge.
Carrie and her daughter Aimee (’24) display the beautiful array of hand-made cards submitted for distribution to our local seniors.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created many changes in my life these past few months. Online schooling has had its ups and downs, but the highlights of my distance learning have revolved around the ways I’ve been able to incorporate my extracurricular community organizing activities into my Environmental Science class.
I am the leader of the Cowichan Valley Earth Guardians crew. We are a group of socially and environmentally aware youth who engage with our community to educate about and work on social and environmental issues. The pandemic has disallowed organizing community events and meeting with community members in traditional ways, consequently it has tested our creativity and resiliency as youth activists.
One way my group has continued to raise awareness about climate change is by participating in the Fridays for Future digital strike. Each Friday we take pictures of ourselves holding signs that promote climate and environmental action. I have also been taking advantage of my time at home to do more land based learning, such as foraging and sharing my endeavours on social media. Another way I personally continue to raise awareness about environmental issues is through my blog. Recently, I have written about how COVID-19 is affecting climate action, a resurgence of victory gardens and concern about food security during the pandemic and the need for a green recovery from COVID-19. To learn more about the Fridays for Future digital strike and other initiatives I am involved in, visit my blog Sowing Seeds of Change. Education about the implications the pandemic carries involving environmental protection is essential to ensuring that the pandemic does not cause long lasting harm to our capacity to protect ecological communities.
While COVID-19 has been cancelling in-person events, many events have been moved online. Both my organizing group and I have taken advantage of these online opportunities through participation and presentation. The pandemic has made extracurricular education opportunities more accessible. Webinars are now occurring daily and organizations are going the extra mile to make sure they continue to offer educational opportunities despite COVID-19. I recently presented on the subjects of youth in the climate crisis and intergenerational collaboration for the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria.