Activity week also doubles as teaching moment

The annual Activity Week at Notre Dame Regional High School teaches students what it is like to be a part of a small business by selling products, collecting money and distributing the products. It also teaches the students how be good members of the community.

Students learn that there is a world out there that isn't just fun and games and there are real needs, principal Brother David Migliorino said.

This is a way for students to learn how to tend to those needs, he said.

Seniors Danielle Schumer and Brook Heischmidt have learned that lesson first-hand this year during Activity Week. They participated in service projects such as dusting the school's offices, pulling weeds, staining a swing set and washing windows.

The students also realized that some project needs weren't always completed when their part was over.

Schumer said she went to Migliorino and said the person they helped with weeding and painting still needed assistance, but that she couldn't go back to help because she had already committed to other projects. She wanted to make sure someone was able to go back and help.

"We are showing the community what Notre Dame is about," she said. "It's a really good way to show people that we're not about just earning money for the school, we really want to help people."

Heischmidt said she thinks through the service projects students learn that they can't just assume people will give them money, they need to work for it.

"Everybody at Notre Dame volunteers all the time so it's nothing new," Heischmidt said.

Migliorino says when he praises his students for helping out in the community they ask him, "Aren't you supposed to do that?"

Activity Week gives the students the confidence to reach out to those people in the community who need help.

"The message is how to give back for what you get," Migliorino said.

ameyer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127