Academics
Community Service
Kersey Cares
Kersey Cares is the student service learning program at BCD. This program connects students with local organizations as students contribute philanthropically, with in-kind donations and with time spent on service learning field trips. Each grade level, Kindergarten through Eighth Grade, participates in at least one service learning field trip during the school year. The focus of the program is on forming long-term relationships that cultivate awareness and understanding of how volunteerism, the donations of goods and fundraising efforts directly benefit non-profit organizations. Each grade level provides a different service for a non-profit organization that they will serve for three years. The non-profit organizations vary by division. This structure adds depth and breadth to the students’ involvement. Parents are welcome to volunteer on these trips.
Lower Elementary
In partnership with the Boulder County Parks and Open Space, BCD students in Kindergarten through second grade form relationships with local rangers to learn about our unique western environment, animal habitats and provide a valuable service. The custom group projects enable our youngest students to be in very safe and supervised outdoor settings while measurably benefitting our beautiful parks and open space. Specific focus areas for students in Kindergarten through Second Grade are listed below:
- Kindergarten: Walden Ponds: Animal habitat and scavenger hunt
- 1st grade: Park location TBD: Birds of Prey education and Custom seeding project
- 2nd grade: Park location TBD: Reforestation project
Upper Elementary
A partnership with There With Care allows BCD students in third through fifth grades opportunities to serve children their own age and to cultivate significant relationships with the program coordinators. BCD students support There With Care’s mission and provide a wide range of thoughtful and fundamental services to children and families during the critical phase of a medical crisis. Specific focus areas for the students in third through fifth grade are listed below:
- 3rd grade: Writing letters of encouragement to hospitalized children
- 4th grade: Handmade fleece snuggle blankets for hospitalized children and their siblings
- 5th grade: Partner with senior citizen residents of Balfour retirement community to pack 40 sacks of non-perishable, easy to prepare meals and substantial snacks for the families of hospitalized children and delivering them to There With Care.
Middle School
A partnership with Bridge House allows BCD students in sixth through eighth grades opportunities to serve Boulder’s homeless and working poor. In connection with Bridge House’s mission, BCD students address immediate survival needs of homeless and working poor individuals and provide resources which lead to employment, housing, personal stability and healing.
- 6th grade: Assist The Bridge House with their Holiday Mailing. 6th grade students travel to the Bridge House’s Resource Center and participate in this important aspect of fundraising for non-profits companies. Students also donate new warm socks before winter and deliver them to the Bridge House. This endeavor allows the students the opportunity to learn how a non-profit company relies on the volunteer efforts of the greater community and broachs the issue of homelessness and the urgent needs of those without adequate shelter.
- 7th grade: Conduct a gently used professional clothing drive, deliver the clothing to the clients of the Bridge House with the opportunity to interact with the clients and hear the ways that the Bridge House assists them in fulfilling their needs. This project focuses on the Bridge House’s ultimate goals of helping those in need with the emergence out of dependency and homelessness.
- 8th grade: Donate pie baking ingredients and work with the Bridge House’s chef and the clients of their ‘Ready To Work’ initiative at the Bridge House kitchen to bake 30 pumpkin pies to be served at Thanksgiving dinner.
Middle School Service Hours
Middle School students are required to complete 20 hours of community service outside of school. Students may choose service opportunities outside of school that are of interest to them or they may pursue opportunities at BCD.
Family Service Opportunities
Harvest of Hope Pantry
Our annual food drive at Fall Festival benefits the Hope of Harvest Pantry. There is a great need at this local pantry that services the ‘food insecure’ of Boulder. Several families gather the Saturday after the Festival to transport, weigh and stock the cans on the shelves of the pantry.
In conjunction with the middle school’s liaison with the Bridge House, BCD’s community comes together several times a year to prepare, serve dinner for those in need at the Bridge House’s Community Table.
Every November the BCD community conducts a turkey drive for the clients of the Sister Carmen Center. Over a week’s time our goal is to delivery at least one turkey for every family connected to BCD. Volunteers help each morning and afternoon to transport the turkeys to the center.
In December, the BCD community conducts a drive for much needed items to benefit Attention Homes. Attention Homes mission is to provide opportunities for at risk youth to change their lives by offering not only shelter and community-based living but also the teaching of life skills necessary for an independent future.
In the spring, BCD families join forces for an outdoor project through Boulder County Parks and Open Space such as reforesting open space areas detrimentally affected by winter storms, flood reparation, etc.
Boulder Country Day School 4820 Nautilus Court North • Boulder, Colorado 80301 • Phone - 303.527.4931 • info@bouldercountryday.org
Boulder Country Day School, where academic distinction meets education with character. BCD is a top rated, accredited private school in Boulder, Colorado where every child has the opportunity to discover his or her own unique excellence. Distinguished by small class sizes, outstanding faculty, engaging academics and a focus on community, our preschool, elementary and IB middle school teachers strive to create a well-rounded educational environment that balances traditional subjects with the arts, world languages, athletics and project-based learning.
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