Community Service

Service opportunities at Curtis are designed to foster a culture of stewardship with respect to our school community and the many other communities of which our students are a part.

Curtis students participate in lunchtime community service clubs, Seedlings (DK-2), Buds (3-4), and Roots and Shoots (5-6), that meet throughout the year on a monthly basis. At the youngest level, Seedlings, the program is designed to introduce service by exploring the concept of community, what it means to help others, and different ways to be helpful. Students in Seedlings and Buds exercise and develop their Curtis compassionate hearts by participating in projects and activities that are designed and facilitated by the division heads in collaboration with Parents Association volunteers.

In Roots & Shoots for the oldest grades (5-6), students are asked to come up with their own ideas for projects and activities that will have a positive impact on school, neighborhood, our country, and the world. Student-driven projects teach the students that their ideas are valuable and vital to the health of our global community. Roots & Shoots is facilitated by Curtis faculty.

In addition to the lunchtime, age-leveled service groups, many grades have their own annual service projects.

Developmental Kindergarten, Kindergarten and 1st Grade classes serve My Friend's Place, a drop-in center in Hollywood that provides services for homeless teens, by making and packing lunches for the teens.

2nd Grade organizes a gently used book drive with donated books going to a non-profit for redistribution to underserved communities or schools.

4th Grade, with help from Seedlings, Buds and Roots & Shoots, as well as 6th Grade and many parent volunteers, bakes hundreds of loaves of pumpkin bread to be distributed by St. Joseph Center to its clients during the Thanksgiving season.

The 6th Grade classes make numerous visits to St. Joseph Center, where they help serve clients in the food pantry and the Bread and Roses Café. They partner with a local community school to build bicycles that are donated to St. Joseph Center as well.

Our entire Curtis community (faculty, staff, parents/guardians, and students) joins in our own annual Curtis Cares Day of Service, undertaking projects that benefit a number of local non-profit organizations such as One Voice, Operation Gratitude, and Pet Orphans Shelter, as well as our own campus with updates to large-scale art installations and our certified Monarch Waystation garden.