By: Brady Palmer (12)

The theology department at Helias Catholic has a long history of sending out their seniors to various organizations to serve as volunteers. This has been a long time staple particularly of Coach Chris Hentge's religion class for many years up to this point. Not only do these organizations greatly appreciate the help, but many students also have a very positive experience in the process.

Some of the students in this class go out to some of the grade schools to serve as teachers aid. Ben Lanigan (12), who does his service at St. Joseph grade school, personally helps the middle school teachers with grading and assisting the kids with their work.

“I go to my mom’s classroom, and while she’s teaching, I’ll usually be grading papers or getting an assignment ready for the class. Then if the kids need help with their work, I assist them with that, too,” Lanigan said.

The biggest goal of this project is to give the hard workers at these places some assistance. This goal has been met and then some, with many locations stating how thankful they are to have some help in their day-to-day work.

“Really, I just make sure that the teachers don’t have any homework. But they're always super grateful for the help that they get,” Lanigan said.

Thanks to the values of this course, Helias Catholic students are able to learn the importance of hard work and consistency, as well as the individual lessons the students learn from their individual locations.

“I’ve learned a lot about the importance of hard work. But I also think that working with these kids now will help me to be a better parent in the future and help me get more comfortable working with kids,” Lanigan said.

The benefits of students volunteering helps in learning the value of hard work. But most of all. It teaches them values of service, faith and devotion that they might not have found elsewhere.