Starting Early
Winding down our 75th Rotary year this month gives us an opportunity to shift our focus from celebrating the past to thinking about the future – specifically the next generation of people who embrace service above self.
Anyone with children in Orinda schools already knows there are fantastic programs in place to give our kids the chance to learn the value of helping each other and the broader community.
Those programs begin in elementary school and extend through high school, where community service, and service to other students, are core values. At Miramonte, there are a myriad of service opportunities for students, including a Rotary-sponsored Interact Club that exposes students to volunteer and leadership opportunities, and our partnership with the Miramonte Track and Field team to host Rotary Field Day.
But it isn’t just our schools.
One of the great things about living in Orinda is that there are so many opportunities for our younger citizens to begin learning about the value and rewards of helping other people. The most obvious are the many local, faith-based institutions that embrace service, but here are just a few others that stand out:
• Girl Scouts, through community service and Take Action projects. There are more than a dozen Girl Scout troops in or adjacent to Orinda. To find one, visit mygs.girlscouts.org.
• Scouting, which now includes boys and girls. A key tenet of Scouting is “to help other people at all times.” There are three Cub Scout packs and two Scout troops in Orinda. To find one, visit beascout.scouting.org.
• The National Charity League (NCL), which will celebrate its centennial in 2025. NCL brings mothers and daughters together for a six-year program in community service beginning in seventh grade. Visit nationalcharityleague.org/chapter/lamorinda.
• Boys Team Charity, the more recently organized counterpart to NCL that brings together families and boys in grades 7-12 for community service. Visit leagues.boysteamcharity.org/chapter/lamorinda/.
We also see the dedication of young people to service in the life and career goals of the Miramonte students we interview for Rotary scholarships. Happily, Orinda students’ real commitment to helping other people doesn’t end with college admissions.
With two kids in college, I’ve personally watched and heard how they and their friends continue to apply what they learned about service growing up in Orinda to their everyday lives – in ways that run the gamut – from pursuing careers in public service to establishing new programs to help their adopted college towns.
Finally, there is another huge advantage to community service that couldn’t be more important in today’s world – better mental health.
In his 1901 autobiography, “Up from Slavery,” Booker T. Washington wrote, “I have found that the happiest people are those who do the most for others.”
More than a century later, reams of studies have established the wisdom of that observation for adults, and science also backs that sentiment for our youth.
In a 2023 study of nearly 52,000 children and adolescents, researchers found that volunteering is associated with higher odds of parent-reported excellent or very good health in children and adolescents; lower odds of anxiety among adolescents and higher odds of flourishing in both children and adolescents. See study here: https://bit.ly/3KeZoDq/.
By taking advantage of the service opportunities Orinda offers, our children are learning that service above self is also service for self.
