The SEM Community Service Board recruits volunteers for the spring and fall Buffalo-Niagara Waterkeeper Shoreline Sweep. Mrs. Kyle Hopkins, faculty advisor for the Community Service Board, is a site captain on the Niagara River.
Community Service
At SEM we believe the goal of community service is to inspire and facilitate a giving spirit in each of our students, so that reaching out to others and giving of one’s time and energy become a way of life. Community Service is an attribute of the SEM curriculum – in 2017-18, 100% of our students actively engaged with several organizations to far exceed our 10-hour per year requirement.
The Community Service Coordinator and the student-run Community Service Board work hard to maintain committed and consistent relationships with these specific community partners: Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, for whom SEM is a site captain for the annual spring regional clean-up; Unyts, our Donate Life Club holds two blood drives each year to support this important and unique WNY organ and blood procurement organization; St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy, for whom students not only collect and donate items to the Mission Mall, but also volunteer at the Mission Mall and the soup kitchen each month; and ENERGY and FLY Afterschool Programs, where each trimester a new group of girls spends two hours each week tutoring kids from Buffalo’s West Side.
These organizations count on us, and we are a kinder, more enriched community because of our relationship with them.
Students submit their hours online, whether they participated in a SEM or non SEM-sponsored event.
Other organizations we serve include:
21st Century Fund
Charter School of Inquiry
Family Help Center
Food Bank of Western NY
Lafayette High School
Vive La Casa/Jericho Road
WEDI (Westminster Economic Development Initiative)
Community Service Board Shoreline Sweep