By Melanie Petrucci, Senior Community Reporter
Shrewsbury – Several students from the Sherwood Middle School recently paid a visit to The Residence at Orchard Grove, a senior living community. There, Oviya Mohan participated in chair exercises with a few of the seniors while her fellow classmates Varnika Jain, Emma Ellis and Alexis Maloney gave manicures to Ilia McCormack, Theresa Ingemi and Paulyne Fiorillo.
The students all belong to the school’s Student Voice organization, which offers the kids a chance to do community service projects. And on a visit such as the one to The Residence at Orchard Grove, it was also a chance to make new friends as well.
“Student Voice is a made up of twelve ‘crews,’ or groups, that emphasize the importance of community service within Sherwood Middle School and the Shrewsbury community. Each crew encompasses our core values and the school’s touchstone,” explained Paula Carney, faculty advisor of the club. “Student Voice was established 2013 and is still going strong with over 350 student volunteers this year.”
‘What I really wanted to do and why I joined Student Voice is to make a difference in the community, help out those in need, volunteer and get to know other people,” said Emma.
Alexis added that she likes to help and hang out with new people and make friends.
Varnika and Oviya are new this year to Student Voice and their reasons for joining are similar in that they like to volunteer and meet new people.
Sherwood staff member Carol Rocco was excited to be a part of Student Voice as an advisor to the Community Connections Crew and had wanted to get involved for some time. A long-time community volunteer herself, this allows her another service outlet.
Other Student Voice activities include food drives, creating kindness bulletin boards, gathering and organizing clothes for Andy’s Attic, maintaining a community garden, keeping the hallways clean, running community meetings, and creating fun kindness competitions.
For more information, visit: https://schools.shrewsburyma.gov/sherwood/student-voice.