Veritas Academy is in the throes of its only fundraiser for the year - the annual Serve-a-Thon, where students collect sponsorships for a day spent serving the local community. As serving is one of our three pillars that we strive to instill in students (along with loving and thinking), we asked some of our high school students to reflect on what they have learned through the service opportunities they've participated in at Veritas Academy. Here is Salem Westlund, current Veritas senior, and his thoughts on how this service has shaped him.

Throughout my career at Veritas Academy, there have been many opportunities for the school to participate in service projects that accomplish many goals in the student body. There are few better ways to get to know someone than to be put into a teamwork situation with them.

GAiN Service

I first discovered this seven years ago, in fifth grade. Our school had committed to helping a local third world aid organization (the Global Aid Network or GAiN) with packaging food, organizing clothing, and making gospel bracelets for the people of Haiti who had been affected by the recent natural disasters in the country. Not only were we volunteering to help a people in need, but we were also bonding with each other and giving the aid workers a means through which they could introduce the Haitians to Christ.

Long’s Park

Last year, during my junior year at Veritas, we had the opportunity to serve at Long’s Park by cleaning up dead trees and picking up debris throughout the park. This work was much harder than what we had done in past years like organizing libraries or cleaning up trash at small public areas. As one of the biggest students in the school, naturally I was assigned to hauling branches and decaying tree trunks across a small stream and dumping them into large trucks that the maintenance crew used to haul them away.

The Value of Teamwork

At first I was annoyed at the fact that I was going to be doing the heavy grunt work, but after doing it for a bit, I found that I really enjoyed it. I was tearing apart old dead trees that needed to be taken away, (and let’s be honest, what guy doesn’t want to do that) and I was helping my community by doing it. However, in every job setting there is always a task that needs more than one man to complete. I soon realized this when I tried to move an entire tree on my own, and was unable to do so. I crossed the stream and recruited five of my classmates to help me move it back to the trucks. At first, we were successful in moving the tree, but we soon found that it was too heavy for even the six of us to take on by ourselves. Soon there were many other students and even a few teachers who joined in, and together, we moved the tree back to the trucks and loaded it in. I alone didn’t have even the slightest chance of accomplishing that task, even after five of my friends came to help me, the task was still very difficult. But when people joined in and helped us, we could defeat something that was much bigger than any of us as individuals.

In summary, these service projects not only helped the communities in which we live, they also helped us as students to realize the value of teamwork. They showed me that any task is more enjoyable with a good attitude, and friends to help me accomplish it.