Welcome to

St. Dominic High School

CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT

All students receiving a diploma from St. Dominic High School must complete 100 hours of community service in order to graduate.  We do this because service is integral to the Catholic Faith.  Also, performing service to others is part of the four pillars of the Dominican Order, service, study, prayer, and community, which we try to embody at St. Dominic High School. 

The idea of service projects is to go beyond yourself and your everyday world to experience a broader view of society and then reflect upon your service to society.  This is a wonderful opportunity to learn, experience, and grow.   

NOTE SOME EXCLUSIONS OF ALLOWABLE SERVICE HOURS.

·         No project will be accepted which is directly or indirectly related to your family (household chores, babysitting for brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, etc., doing odd jobs at your home or a relative’s home, such as mowing the lawn, washing the cars and the like.)

·         Working for for-profit organizations, whether you get paid or not, babysitting (for children or pets) or taking care of a house or yard while someone is on vacation, or helping move the neighbors or family friends, or working for a political campaign is not community service. 

·         Service projects should not be associated directly with student activities at St. Dominic High School, and cannot be performed during school hours.

Your community service project should be with a COMMUNITY NOT-FOR-PROFIT organization which directly serves people who for one reason or another cannot help themselves. Ideally service hours should help those who are less fortunate than you.  The service hours to be recorded should be direct contact or training hours.  Time spent on travel, sleep, or recreation should not be counted. 

POSSIBILITIES FOR CHRISTIAN SERVICE

1.  YOUR HOME PARISH--contact the pastor

                baby-sit during Mass, RCIA, parish meetings, etc.

                work in Vacation Bible School

                beautify the church grounds

                transport the elderly to Mass

                work at parish picnics, fall festivals, fish fries, sausage suppers, etc.

                work with K of C, St. Vincent DePaul Society

2.  YOUR GRADE SCHOOL--contact principal or former teacher

3.  ST. DOMINIC – All school service hours need to be approved by Fr. Lane or Mrs. Bodlovich.

4.  HOSPITALS--contact the hospital

Remember that many of the hospitals have waiting lists for Junior Volunteers and have a training program     only once or twice a year.

5.  NURSING HOMES—Must involve direct contact with the residents.

6. OTHER SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS

                St. Charles County Association for Retarded Citizens--summer camps,

                Horsemanship for the Handicapped

                Safety Town--contact the police department

                QUEST RETREAT team member,   HEC RETREAT  team member

                Kids Under Twenty One (KUTO)

                St. Louis Crisis Nursery

7.  See Mrs. Bodlovich, St. Dominic’s web site or the binder in campus ministry for more service opportunities.

If you have any questions about a project, call, email – mbodlovich@stdominichs.org, or see Mrs. Bodlovich or Fr. Lane.  If Mrs. Bodlovich has any questions, or will not accept any of your hours, she will contact you.

CHRISTIAN SERVICE PROGRAM

One of the most extensive and important aspects of spreading the Gospel here at St. Dominic is our Christian Service Program.  Through this program, we encourage our students to offer their talents and themselves in active service to others.  We hope that their service will nurture and instill the values of compassion, respect, and openness toward others as fellow children of our God. As Teresa of Avila said, 

Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours;

 yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion looks out on the world. 

Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good, and yours are the

hands with which He is to bless us now.

Christian service will be incorporated in religion class throughout the four years here at St. Dominic and there will be a required reflection paper each year in religion.  We hopes this helps to instill the four pillars of St. Dominic, service, community, study, and prayer

All St. Dominic students must complete at least 100 hours of volunteer community service in order to graduate.  In order to be considered as volunteer community service hours, the service must be done outside of regular school hours and cannot be associated with student activities at school; certain limitations apply to what will be accepted as community service hours. 

1.      Service associated with parish worship (altar server, lector, choir member, etc.) is limited to 25% of a student’s total required hours.)

2.      Coaching or helping coach a children’s sport team is limited to 25% of a students total required hours.

3.      Service associated with a St. Dominic sports team, or any sports team, such as summer camps, statistics field clean up etc. is limited to 25% of a student’s total required hours.

4.      Service done for a family member, a political campaign, a for-profit company/organization, or as a baby-sitter for neighbors will not be considered as volunteer community service hours.

Each student must submit at least 25 hours per year and have all service hours earned during the school year turned in by June 15^th and all hours performed over the summer turned in by September 15^th.  In addition, each student will be required to write a reflection paper yearly in religion class. 

All service must be completed by the end of the First Semester Senior year.  In order to have SENIOR PRIVILEGE a student must have completed 75 hours by the beginning of senior year and 100 hours by the end of the first semester.

All changes effective as of 8-15-05. 

Mary Bodlovich

Christian Service Coordinator                                                                                    7-21-05