South Carolina Community Service Trip

Over the first week of break, a group of students and I took a trip to South Carolina where we experienced many events that changed my perspective of how I live. As a whole, the trip was meant for sightseeing and more importantly, community service activities. Although there were many of both, three main activities stuck with me, teaching us lessons which we will never forget. On Monday, we traveled to a place that housed four families at a time. These families had young children, and were homeless. In order to join, they had to complete an application process and by the end of their stay, the parents would need to find a sustainable job. Our task was to clean the outsides of the building. At first, I didn’t feel anything different, we were washing the front doors and porch. But after a short lunch break, we began to clean the backyard, a small fenced area with a grill and worn down basketball hoop. Only after cleaning this did I realize the first main lesson: how fortunate I am to go to Belmont Hill, have a stable home and family situation, and to always have running water, electricity and food. For many of the families who ended up there, their lives changed almost overnight, and by hearing some of their stories, I just had to take a moment to reflect on my life. I never really thought much about whether I would come home to see an eviction notice on my front door, or to come home to both my parents crying after losing their jobs. This changed something in me, and now I try to make the best of everything.

The second place that was very important to me, was when we drove over an hour to a boat launch. Here we were given gloves, trash bags, and

by T.Z. Snail ’26

grabbers and were told to pick up as much trash as we could. Seeing it as a competition, many of the kids, including me, ran off to find as many bottles, cigarettes, wrappers, etc., as possible. As I was doing this, I didn’t realize how full my bag was getting and how heavy it was. It was only after we had piled all the trash collected and weighed it that I realized the immense amount of trash we collected. One-hundred and fifty-seven pounds of trash to be exact. This brings me to my next big takeaway, the fact that we come to a clean school everyday. Although it may not seem very prominent, the cleaning crew at our school plays a huge role in our day-to-day lives. They work day and night to present BH as the cleanest it can be, making it more attractive, and a better place to be in. Many times, we don’t think about the work these crews do and I think that we should all take a moment to thank them for their hard work.

The third activity was a place called Habitat for Humanity. This is a place that brings in furniture, books, and other house- hold items, and sells them for low prices. In addition, they build houses for the homeless. Our group was assigned to many tasks, unpacking new shipments, powerwashing, washing down the items, and bringing in the bigger couches and tables. I was mostly focussed on finishing the work at hand and only after we had completed everything did I learn the last lesson. Similar to the first, I was introduced to how I never had to worry about many things in my life, like having a fully functioning and furnished home, having parents who know how to take care of our money and belongings, or even just having time to relax or see friends. Overall, from all these experiences and activities, I think the main takeaway is to appreciate the life you are in, and how there is always someone out there who has it worse. To appreciate the people who make your life clean, healthy, etc., and the people who mean the most to you. And finally, that we should use our resources to give back to those who are less fortunate than us.

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