Commemorating those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, Mount Vernon leads an annual Helping Hands Day in which students and teachers ‘share the well’ through community service for Atlanta’s nonprofit organizations.
This year, children in the Lower School will be multipliers as they make sandwiches in the Fellowship Hall for the homeless, clean the grounds for patrons at the Sandy Springs Library, deliver baked goods to the firefighters at a local fire station, and plant and pick vegetables at the Urban Garden which directly helps those in need.
Middle School students and faculty will multiply their service impact through the pursuit of solutions. Beginning on Helping Hands Day and through a year-long service learning project incorporating design thinking, fifth through eighth graders will identify a human-centered problem in their local and global communities. Some of the issues they will examine include healthy living, animal rights, human trafficking, poverty, Atlanta traffic, litter, and sustainability.
Upper School will spend September 11 fanning out into the Atlanta community to partner with 17 organizations. Through a day of outreach students will assist:
- The Dunwoody Nature Center
- Chattahoochee Nature Center
- Truly Living Well
- Fur Kids
- Lions Lighthouse
- MedShare
- Ronald McDonald House
- Communities in Schools
- Sheltering Arms
- Mt Vernon Towers
- Community Action Center
- Lake Forest Elementary School
- Drake House
- St. Vincent de Paul
- North Fulton Charities
- Books for Africa
- Foster Care Support
Our youngest learners, in the Preschool, will learn the value of service through a hands on experience with Sandy Springs Fire and Rescue workers. Firefighters and EMTs, wearing their full gear and equipment, will talk about keeping people safe — providing students the opportunity to better know and understand their role in the community.
