Community Service

While community service is not mandatory at St. Mark’s School, students are strongly encouraged and have ample opportunity to become involved in one or more of the many community-service programs offered by the school.

The St. Mark’s Society is the school’s principal community-service organization, headed each year by the students them­selves and assisted by the school’s chaplaincy program. The group sponsors special fund-raising projects, clothing drives, and holiday drives, in addition to staffing and promoting the school’s several off-campus community service programs.

The Hillside Big Brother/Big Sister Program

This program pairs a St. Mark’s student with a sixth- or seventh-grade boy from the Hillside School in Marlborough, Mass. The Hillside School is an independent, junior boarding school for boys from many different backgrounds and circumstances who have faced unusual obstacles to learning and maturing in ordinary school settings. St. Markers meet with their “little brother” approximately once each month and spend a weekend afternoon with him for recreation on or off the St. Mark’s campus. We also invite them to campus as our guests for dinner and such special programs as Christmas Lessons and Carols, school athletic events, and school theatrical productions.

Marlborough Boys & Girls Club

In this program, our students serve as after-school tutors and play-partners at the MetroWest Boys & Girls Club in Marlborough. Two teams of seven students each currently spend either Monday or Thursday afternoon with children ages 6 to 12. Two other teams of three or four students each work on those same days in a smaller, branch location of the main center at the Countryside housing development in Marlborough. At both sites, our students help with homework, assist with sports teams, or join in other recreational activities there.

Our Father’s Table

On one afternoon each week, three of our students assist at this inter-faith feeding program hosted by a local Baptist church in Marlborough. The students assist with the preparation, serving, and cleanup of the meal, and they chat during the meal with the people who come for this service.

Brantwood Camp

Brantwood is a summer camp that has been staffed in part by St. Mark’s students and graduates for more than 70 years. Located in Peterborough, N.H., Brantwood provides educational and recreational programs for inner-city boys and girls. St. Mark’s students, often during the summer between their fifth- and sixth-form year, serve there as volunteer counselors responsible for a cabin of children. Many St. Markers have served at Brantwood over the years. Indeed, serving at Brantwood, called until recently a “shackie,” is described by many graduates as one of the most formative experiences of their adolescence. To learn more about Brantwood, click here.

Lutheran Social Services Programs

Because the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have entered into “full communion” with one another — deciding, among other things, to work together in mission and ministry — the St. Mark’s Society undertakes a number of community-service projects with Lutheran Social Services in MetroWest. These projects include a holiday fund and gift drive for the developmentally disabled, teenage mothers and their children, and recent refugees to the area served by Lutheran Social Services in nearby Worcester, Mass., together with a major clothing drive at the end of the year.

Support for the Ministries of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem

St. Mark’s School has undertaken a “companion school” relationship with St. George’s School for boys in Jerusalem.  This relationship involves some fund raising for the needs of this 102-year-old, K-12 day school as it serves the educational aspirations of the residents of East Jerusalem. St. George’s is one of the few schools of this caliber offering scholarships to needy students from the Jerusalem area, and the St. Mark’s Society contributes to scholarships for the most needy boys. The Society has also responded to the occasional needs of other ministries in the Diocese, such as a contribution to the community health care clinics of the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza.

Special Projects

Through its ongoing fund-raising efforts, the St. Mark’s Society stands ready to assist with special programs and unforeseen needs as they arise. The Society raised $2,800 from students, faculty, and staff for the Asian Tsunami Relief effort, and contributed $500 to domestic and Caribbean hurricane relief in the fall of 2004, both through Episcopal Relief & Development. The Society has organized a St. Mark’s contingent for the annual Walk for Hunger, participated in the Jimmy Fund School Program, and contributed to the Jubilee Ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts’ African AIDS Project.

As community service continues to grow as an integral part of the fabric of St. Mark’s School, our students are demonstrating an increasing desire and willingness to be of service to others. The inspiration for the school’s service to the wider community is anchored in St. Mark’s Anglican foundation, and it is animated always by a spirit of thanksgiving for the many blessings in the lives of our students and in our school.