Day of Service Plays an Important Role at NHS

In 2019, Mr. Denis Williams, the principal at Nutley High School, started a new way for students  to give back called “Day of Service." Day of Service is “focused on giving students the opportunity to help beautify the creaky old building that is NHS,” says Mr. Williams. It is a way for students of any grade to get involved and give back to the school community while also earning service hours. 

There are no set requirements that students have to meet to be able to participate in the Day of Service. “In fact, we want to encourage students who may not have done any volunteer service hours to take the initiative and give back,” says Mr. Williams.

Day of Service operates once every marking period so that it would be four times a year. It is run during school hours, so when students participate in Day of Service, they are marked as on a field trip, so it does not count against them. The students are being recognized for volunteering.

For the first-ever Day of Service in 2019, students were able to come down to the music hallway and paint during school hours. But because of COVID in 2020, this activity was shut down for this current year.

This year, students at NHS got to work with the Nutley Family Service Bureau to clean up a local park in Nutley called Booth Park. They cleaned up the park from all the damage that Hurricane Ida caused Nutley in early September.

“We collected a lot of debris and three shopping carts from the Third River,” says Mr. Williams. Students were also able to “clean and organize the prop rooms and stage area in the Music wing, and beautify the breezeway windows with autumnal themes.” 

“Service is important because we all have benefitted in our lives from the service of others - society does not function with isolated individuals, society runs because we all see the inherent value of cooperating, collaborating, and helping each other out,” says Mr. Williams

Being able to have an opportunity like Day of Service to get involved is very important. The upperclassmen at Nutley High School are encouraged to come up with ideas, and all students are motivated to start contributing to the community. Day of Service at Nutley High School can be the way for you to start.