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One of the core operating principles at Friends School is social responsibility. Through age-appropriate service projects, we encourage students to promote the search for peace, justice and the building of a better world. Community Service is an integral part of our student’s academic and spiritual education fostering empathy and involvement both locally and globally.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” Gandhi

School wide - Pennies for Peace - Inspired by reading Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea our community has been collecting donations to help build schools in northern mountainous regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. By building schools and educating children, especially girls, we can contribute, in our small way, to the promotion of peace in war torn areas. During the second week of school, on International Day of Peace, we collected $250 in coins and had a school wide moving moment of silence holding hands in a circle.

5th Grade - Heifer International’s Read to Feed Program - Our 5th graders participate by finding sponsors for their reading throughout the year. At the end of the year, the donations are combined and the class selects a gift, such as a beehive, llama, or water buffalo to be given to an impoverished family in a developing country.

Visiting Friends Village at Woodstown - Over the course of the year, students meet, greet and work with the elderly.

Annual Box Lunch Program - With the help of the Hamburg family, students organize and collect nonperishable food items and place them in boxes prior to the Thanksgiving Break. The boxes are given to Woodbury Food Bank who distributes them to public school children who are dependent on the school lunch program.

6th Grade - Visiting the Mannington Regional Day School - The RDS, south of Woodstown, is a regional school for children with mental and physical challenges. For the last 5 years, Mary-Ann Manzelmann, a teacher at RDS, has fostered a partnership between Friends School and the RDS helping to coordinate our visits. In November, T. Rhonda and the 6th grade will lead a yoga class for RDS students.

Malaria Nets - Raising funds for chemical treated malaria nets. Sixth graders learn how tragic malaria can be for families in Asia and Africa as they travel around the world in the 6th grade mapping program. Donations will be sent in June to the United Nations Fund.

7th Grade - ARC Program - The class will be making three visits this year to the ARC Chestnut Ridge Rehabilitation Center and the ARC Bakery to work with Adults who are mentally and physically challenged. Our students work hand to hand with these wonderful new friends. In the Spring we have a Mini-walk to help sponsor the ARC and to help raise funds for ARC's Camp Sun n' Fun.

Gloucester Clean Communities Grant Program - Through our students’ efforts of gathering garbage and recyclables on Friends campus and Friends Woodland Preserve, they are receiving a $500 grant for participating in the Gloucester Clean Communities Grant Program.

Two Middle School students initiated a service project to help children who are being shuffled from home to home by DYFS (Division of Youth and Family Services). With the help of the Middle School Service Club they collected over 200 new or “gently” used duffle bags and baby diaper bags for foster children who have nothing to transport their belongings in except plastic trash bags. These contributions went to local children in the Sewell and West Deptford communities.

Kids In Kenya Project

An ongoing project, shoes and school supplies are collected for the “Kids in Kenya” project to benefit the Compass Primary School in Kikuyu, Kenya. This service project began through the direct contact of former Friends School parent, Nancy Cimprich, who was involved with a church group who went to Kenya to build a building that would serve as a community and education center near Kikuyu.

Students, Teacher Peter, our Community Service Club advisor, and Nancy Cimprich are pictured with collected shoes and supplies.

Project Ports

Oysters may soon become much more familiar to the Friends School Mullica Hill community as we have been invited to become a Project PORTS Partner School.

Project PORTS is a community-based restoration and educational program focusing on the importance of oysters in the Delaware Bay ecosystem. Project PORTS is sponsored by the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory at Rutgers University. The goal of Project PORTS is to restore oyster habitats and to increase awareness and understanding of the oyster as a keystone species and an important natural resource of the Bay, while at the same time promoting a basic understanding of key scientific concepts and stewardship values.

Here students are filling net bags with clam shells which will be placed in conservation areas to help with the restoration of oyster beds in the Delaware Bay.

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