STUDENTS MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Above, from left: Allison Kanter, Luis Estrada, and Anna Schmult construct bird houses with teacher Paul Skalka. Below: Senior Greg Flood of the Hun School collects items of debris in Beach Haven, New Jersey.

Students at John Witherspoon Middle School (JWMS) and the Hun School of Princeton were among the army of kids lending their efforts in support of the Princeton community and beyond with an all day “Service Saturday” at JWMS and Hun’s Earth Day Sandy Clean Up.

At JWMS on April 20, over 75 students and over 20 staff members volunteered their time for community projects. Technology teacher Kelly Riely, who also coaches track and field and advises the school’s “Do Something Club,” helped coordinate the activities. “This is my second year creating and organizing this event, our chance to give back to a community that gives so much to us,” she said.

Students “gave back” at over 11 sites between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Some helped out at SAVE, while others were at Princeton Care, Princeton Nursery, YWCA/YMCA, the Arts Council of Princeton, and the Stony Millstone Watershed. Several worked with Sustainable Princeton’s Diane Landis on a PSA film about the organization.

At the school, others had the opportunity to build bird cages that were placed in the outdoor garden at Community Park School or work on an art mural for Princeton Hospital. Teacher Paul Skalka worked with students on the bird houses and visual arts teacher Claudia Luongo and student teachers guided the art mural. The materials used for the bird houses, said Mr. Skalka were funded by a grant from the Princeton Education Foundation (PEF).

Over 90 bagged sandwich lunches were made for The Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) with donations from Cindy Hill and her team at Sodexo. Hundreds of books were collected and organized for Books Have Wings. The school grounds benefited from the work of student landscapers.

“All in all it was a wonderful day for students and staff who volunteered to help others,” said Ms. Riely. “Students cleaned, walked animals, hung posters, sang, and did arts and crafts with our senior residents, and much more. They truly showed the community that they care. We look forward to our third annual Service Saturday next year.”

The Hun School marked Earth Day, April 22, with some 525 Upper School students offering their support to four communities in New Jersey and New York that had suffered from the impact of Superstorm Sandy. Like Senior Greg Flood (pictured on page 5), they collected items of debris and removed a portion of a pier that had been destroyed.

Before setting out for their destinations, students prepared for the service-learning day with classroom instruction and special programming about Sandy’s impact on the environment and on the economies of the shore towns.

Students and faculty worked alongside community officials at New Jersey’s Island Beach State Park in Seaside Park; Barnegat Lighthouse in Barnegat Light Borough; and Beach Haven West; as well as New York’s Great Kills National Park in Staten Island.