Working for a cause: Notre Dame students toil to benefit their school, community and others

Jason Kirby scratches at the rapidly forming red blotches on his arms.

"How do you get rid of poison ivy?" the 17-year-old asks four or five fellow teens.

"Ointment," they answer in chorus.

On a recent warm afternoon, Kirby learned that service work can be itchy business.

Kirby and fellow seniors at Notre Dame Regional High School logged a couple of hours pulling, raking and sawing weeds and brush at a Main Street business. The teens did it for money, but not to line their pockets. The fruits of their hard work directly funds their high school education.

"It feels really good," said Kristen Oberlohr, 17. "I'm really proud of all of the work we've done."

The Main Street cleanup was among dozens of community service projects Notre Dame seniors took on during the high school's annual Activity Week. The school's major fundraiser, which includes the Week of Sunday Dinners, relies on seniors in particular to bring in contributions through hard work.

Kirby, like many of his classmates, had worked on several community projects by the end of Activity Week -- from detailing a car to staining a pool. His efforts earned his school hundreds of dollars from community members hiring out the odd jobs. The poison ivy was extra.

For Tyler Buelow, 18, finishing a project offers an unmatched sense of accomplishment. But there's a bit of competition in it, too. Notre Dame principal Brother David Migliorino promised the senior class that if it met its fundraising goal, part of the new gymnasium would be dedicated to the class, Buelow said.

"It's kind of a legacy to our hard work, to come back and look later and say you worked hard your senior year and they did this to commemorate what you did," Buelow said.

Notre Dame seniors have already built a legacy to their time in high school through service work in distressed areas of the country and in Cape Girardeau Area Habitat for Humanity.

Taylor Janet, 17, joined the school's mission trip last year, rebuilding a Louisiana family's home destroyed in a hurricane.

"It touched me so much," she said. "There was this little boy there, about 8 or so. He was playing in a little baby pool and he was playing with a block of wood. It looked like it was his only toy.

"It made me realize how good I have it. It made me want to help others."

Jamie Brugger, 18, has worked with Habitat for Humanity the past two summers. The housing program, Brugger said, is an opportunity to meet new people, help those in need and, nearly as important to the Notre Dame senior, use power tools.

And this teen loves her power tools.

"I bought my own drill," she said proudly. "I don't use it all the time, but when I do, I know how. I'm pretty good at it."

For students like Brugger, service work goes beyond the basics of fundraising and lending a hand.

"It shows how the people of Notre Dame are," she said. "It shows the whole community how we act at school. We're not all talk. We actually do it."

mkittle@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

265 Notre Dame Drive, Cape Girardeau, MO