Day School Students Give Back to St. Hubert's

This article was written by Kathlee Donahue Rennie.

As part of the Leadership Class curriculum at Chatham Day School, students participate in community service projects designed to hone their communication skills and allow them to experience leadership situations and principles first-hand.

This fall, the students’ project provided a way to learn how the power of technology and innovation can enhance leadership efforts as well as be a service to others.

Using the new website YouGiveGoods.com, the class set up a drive page for St. Hubert's Giralda Animal Welfare Center in Madison. Through the drive page, people were invited to purchase goods starting at $5 from any place they had internet access in the United States.

Students in the Leadership Class then spread word about the drive to their family and friends via social media, asking others to visit their YouGiveGoods.com drive page to make a donation.

Within a few weeks, the class exceeded its $500 project goal (in goods donated) by nearly 25 percent.

“The site gave us an opportunity to prepare future leaders by allowing them to connect to others and lead others via today’s media,” said Donna Greco, Elementary Division Head at Chatham Day School. “The students learned that leadership today often requires technology and that social media can be used to achieve meaningful results.”

In fact, pointed out Grecco,  two students in the class were so inspired by the project that they started their own individual drives. Catherine Kazel’s drive seeks additional assistance for St. Hubert’s.

Classmate Kaitlyn Yourkoski’s drive is for the animal shelter in her hometown -- the Jersey Animal Coalition in South Orange -- from which Kaitlyn’s family adopted their  two “very sweet pets.”

“All the purchases from the drives created by Chatham Day School students will be delivered directly to the selected charities,” said Patrick O’Neill, of Mendham, and CEO of YouGiveGoods. “The drives are examples of how doing good has gotten even better using technology that people use everyday, and how young people can lead the way.”