During the week of October 16th, the 10th-grade class at The Village School had the opportunity to go to Puerto Rico for a grade-wide service trip. Our time in Puerto Rico was 5 days and 4 nights. The trip was focused on service to residents in Puerto Rico in need. We explored Puerto Rico on the first day of arrival including taking a walking tour and visiting Miramar Food Truck Park for dinner. The second day was when the real service commenced! A section of the grade, including my group, visited Comedor de la Kennedy, a food bank in San Juan, Puerto Rico that feeds over 6,000 people of all ages each day. We learned about the history, goals, and operations of this food bank before we got the chance to pack meal bags for distribution! We sorted the food to take out expired items and include products needed for each bag. Combined, we were able to produce bags that would feed several families, children, elderly people, and university students. After doing service in San Juan on day 2, we traveled a little further to the town of Loiza on day 3. In Loiza, we participated in community service for the local school and community center. We split into groups of 5-6 students and painted porches and benches that were severely chipped with old paint. Some of us also had the chance to build garden boxes for growing plants. We learned from one of the leaders of the organization that every 2 years, the community brings in people to help re-paint buildings that were chipping and losing color. Some students from other groups got the chance to repaint a basketball court for the children of the school!

 

“This trip taught me to truly be grateful for the privileges I have and how small actions can make a big impact on a large community” Said Maria Antunes, a sophomore at The Village School, when asked about what this trip taught her. “I would 100% recommend this trip to other people as it taught me to be more grateful for the things I have and it showed me beautiful parts of different places around the world!” expressed Natalia Macedo, a Royal Oaks resident and sophomore at The Village School when asked if she would recommend this trip to others. Although only 5 days were spent in Puerto Rico, the experience was full of learning, service, and fun with adventures that were once in a lifetime!

 

Although we moved around a lot in Puerto Rico, our hotel resided in San Juan, the capital of the territory. At the end of every day, we would return to Hyatt Place and be greeted by the beautiful sights and nature of San Juan. Puerto Rico provided the sophomore class with alluring scenes of wildlife and landscape as we saw many animals running around and trees bigger than we've ever seen before! San Juan was a busy city, full of life and excitement with cars constantly coming and going, people walking all around, and restaurants filled with people from all over the world excited to try local food. The people of Puerto Rico welcomed us with open arms as they were incredibly helpful and excited to teach us the history and culture of this territory. We even received Hershey Kisses from one of the local people of a community as a thank-you for helping to paint porches during one of the activities!

 

This was an immersive and thrilling trip. We were all grateful for the experience as we understand not all high school students are able to incorporate this kind of service learning in their educational career. Seeing the impact our work had on the communities and the people from them was incredibly moving and taught valuable lessons to the entire class.