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The St. Michael and All Angels parish and school community has a longstanding tradition of service to the local Tucson community and beyond.
Service Learning Programs at St. Michael’s School
The service-learning programs at St. Michael’s School vary in scope depending on grade level and age appropriateness of the activity, but all service is done with the intent of learning more about how to enact and sustain change for the good of others in need. Serving others and ‘walking and working with others’ is integral to our identity and practice as an Episcopal school.
As such, St. Michael’s students participate in a variety of service-learning activities throughout the year, including the following:
Mass Donations
Students in all grades provide voluntary Mass donations to benefit a variety of nonprofits chosen annually by our Upper School Student Council with input from our School Chaplain. For the 2023-2024 School year, these monetary donations helped support the good work at the University of Arizona Food Pantry, Youth on Their Own, Cody’s Friends, and Primavera.
Canned Food Drive
Our annual Canned Food Drive in November invites students, faculty and staff, and families to voluntarily donate canned and packaged food items to the St. Michael and All Angels Food Pantry to support those community members who experience food insecurity. Voluntary monetary donations during the annual Food Drive are also donated to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.
Kindergarten Carwash
Our students in Kindergarten host a community Kindergarten Carwash each year in November to mark the official start of our fall season of giving, which culminates in our Thanksgiving Canned Food Drive as noted above. All monetary donations from the K Carwash are donated to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.
Great Egg-spectations Drive
Throughout the school year, students in Transitional Kindergarten through Eighth Grade participate in our Great Egg-spectations drive by voluntarily donating hardboiled eggs for the Casa Maria Soup Kitchen. Casa Maria is a nonprofit outreach service agency supporting those individuals and families in the Tucson community who are experiencing food insecurity. Our eighth-grade students also volunteer in-person in small groups on a monthly basis throughout the year to help prepare and serve meals at Casa Maria.
Warm Outerwear Drive
During the month of January, students in all grades are invited to donate clothing for our Warm Outerwear Drive, sponsored annually by our Upper School Student Council. This voluntary donation drive benefits the Primavera Foundation adult community in need of warm clothing and children in need of warm clothing through Casa Alitas.
Micro Loan Program Through Kiva
Through their World Religions class, seventh-grade students support the micro-loan program through Kiva, an international nonprofit helping local communities who are without easy access to capital generate small business. Last year, the seventh graders helped fund programs as varied as women seeking seeds and fertilizer to grow carrots and potatoes in Madagascar to a small business selling leggings and tracksuits in Bolivia.
School-Wide Bake Sale
Third-grade students and families host a School-wide Bake Sale in November, proceeds from which benefit the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.
Used-Book Collection
We host a Used-Book Collection donation drive during our Love of Reading Week each year to benefit Make Way for Books, a local Tucson nonprofit supporting early-childhood literacy.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service
All students in the Upper School, Grades five through eight, participate in our annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service in February. Our fifth-grade students partner for the day with Ben’s Bells and their mission of spreading kindness; and our students in grades six through eight leave campus for the day and work directly on site at a variety of local non-profits.
And we have responded as a community in support of spontaneous charitable activities as needs arise. Historically, St. Michael’s has been swift to answer the call for relief when catastrophic events occur globally.