BRANDYWINE HUNDRED — Most of the students at St. Mary Magdalen School took the day off on Oct. 10, which was Indigenous Peoples Day, but a significant number reported to school as usual. They were there for the school’s first Day of Service, which was dedicated to sprucing up the north Wilmington campus and increasing its green footprint.
Some 45 students signed up, along with 25 adults, said Patrick Tiernan, the principal. They performed a number of tasks, including picking up trash around the campus, working on the outdoor classroom, planting winter vegetables for the gardening club and succulents for the classrooms, decorating recycling bins for the classrooms, and painting rocks that were to be placed around memorial trees on the parish grounds.
“This is all part of us trying to turn our attention toward greener initiatives,” Tiernan said, adding that the school has upgraded its lighting to make it more efficient.
St. Mary Magdalen School officials are always looking for opportunities “to kind of put community in action. Not just talking about it, but living it,” he continued. Part of that is to have parents model this kind of service, “but also to give the kids the chance to take greater ownership of the campus and the school. They want to take pride in it.”
All photos by Mike Lang.
