On Wednesday October 2, Mercy students engaged in the annual Make a Difference Day, but in a new way. A community fair was held in the gym while advisor groups also took part in bonding while making blankets and hygiene kits for the less fortunate.
Several non-profit organizations organized informational tables around the gym. Students could walk around and sign up, via QR code, to volunteer at the organizations. Representing a wide variety of issues, the tables assembled and gave Mercy girls the lowdown on their purpose.
“The Salvation Army has been around since 1865 with the central goal of helping people globally,” Lynnette Marshall, Salvation Army volunteer, said. “We are currently in every continent all over the world. Right now, we have people down in the south helping out with the people affected by the hurricane. We help with shelter, food, whatever is in need. Signing up gives you guys opportunities to give help wherever it is needed.”
While a main goal for the fair was to help get service hours for students, they gained much more, especially in opening up to new opportunities to help people.
Another organization advocating for marginalized people stressed that “there are thousands of homeless people all around us and our main goal is helping them,” Margo Smith, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church volunteer, said. “We try to situate the ‘unseen population’ in Detroit. The biggest cause of homelessness is lack of affordable housing, which is what we’re trying to fix.”
The Lutheran Church had a mission of recruiting students to help serve communities close to home, but communities that many don’t often see. Mercy girls may have walked around the community fair, but did they get something out of it?
“It helped me to realize what people were going through and I loved that I got to help them. Also I thought that making the kits and blankets were very beneficial,” ninth grader Ella Hafner said.
“I thought it was fun and good to help those children and their mothers. It will benefit them a lot and I enjoyed making the blankets. I do think it would be fun to go somewhere next year,” freshman Claire Borres said.
She stresses that she has heard lots from older students about Make A Difference Day in the past. In hearing about what could have been, many students see the opportunities from Make A Difference Day this year less than how they have been in the past.
In expressing opinions like this:
“I think the change is good for our school so we can learn more about different organizations, but I do wish we could go out in the community,” sophomore Ellie Jamieson said.
“We miss the real interaction with the humans who we were helping,” Religion teacher Mrs. Elizabeth Garcia said.
”The past years you were there, you were seeing the conditions that people were living in… and you got to help fix it, ” junior Emily Whelan said. “I felt like I had a larger impact on the community when I was out there. Last year we went to a soup kitchen and made over 100 meals. I feel like that was more impactful.”
The first year of Mercy’s new model of Make A Difference Day gave students and organizations an opportunity to benefit each other and grow in awareness. Also, hundreds of fleece blankets were donated to kids in the hospital and many hygiene kits were supplied to under-resourced communities.
“I think this year’s Make A Difference Day is very great for the ninth graders and for getting introduced to service opportunities and Mercy’s core values of service,” senior Isabella Casab said. “I also think it’s a good opportunity even for other grades for a reintroduction to our view of service and the different opportunities in which service presents itself.”
The annual day of service before Mercy’s Homecoming dance is important for the whole school and the core values that the Mercy community regards. In any light, the actions of students and staff on Make A Difference Day this year benefitted many people near our community.