LVY & the Community Barbecue
Lasallian-Vincentian Youth (LVY) is a community service-oriented school organization that has at least two service opportunities and a meeting to reflect on that work every month. The organization is open to all students who look to serve those in the surrounding community and live out SHC’s Lasallian and Vincentian values. This month, LVY helped run the Healing Well’s monthly community barbecue for unhoused Tenderloin residents. Zhivan Khaleeli ‘25, a senior and LVY member who participated in running this barbecue, helped “[serve] hot dogs and sides, [run] karaoke, and [helped] clean up the event.” He explains, “It was a way for SHC students to support their local community and have a good time doing it.”
Trash Sorting With Earth Action Club
In Earth Action Club, Marcel Berkowitz ‘25, the club’s student administrator, and the group created videos showing students how to sort trash and the importance of doing so. These videos will become part of a larger series played on SHCLive throughout the year. Recently, the Earth Action Club has been focusing on showcasing the importance of sorting trash at SHC, as the school was forced to hire an external service to do so for us after years of poor sorting. “This is very expensive and is a waste of money that could be used for more important things on campus,” Marcel states. In the meeting on Friday, November 15, Earth Action Club members interviewed a trash maintenance staff and a Recology worker, hoping to release those videos on an upcoming SHCLive.
Volunteering at Up on Top
Up on Top is an after-school program for elementary school students situated in the Tenderloin Recreation Center and a fairly popular volunteering destination for many SHC students. This week, I talked to Rohan Kahns ‘25 and his experiences with the program. Rohan has regularly volunteered at Up on Top, being there for the kids a few times a month for the last few years. He also worked with them for their camps over the summer. “We play basketball, soccer, [and] tag; I play card games with them,” Rohan says. It’s a way to meet the kids and parents around the area and learn about the neighbors of our school.
LVL Blood Drive
SHC and the Lasallian Vincentian Leadership (LVL) class threw a schoolwide blood drive. LVL has devoted recent class time to create videos asking students to donate their blood for the drive. I spoke with one of the class teachers, Ms. Rinaldi, on the importance of this event. “How can we think a bit around empathy? […] We maybe never needed blood, but we’ve all needed something that someone has bestowed on us,” she explained. It’s about donation and our school’s motto, Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve. Mr. Melero, the Director of Sports Medicine, put the significance of this blood drive simply: “It saves lives.”
LVL Coat and Sock Drive
Additionally, the LVL class is putting on a coat and sock drive where they will set up coat and sock-collecting baskets around the school. Similarly, they have recorded videos for SHCLive asking the student body to donate their rarely-worn jackets and clean socks, as they will be handing out these coats to the nearby people who need them. Bea Shapiro ‘25, a LVL student, states, “It’s important because there are so many people at SHC and in the city in general who have so much and don’t realize how lucky they are to even have extra coats to give away.”
