The Impact of Outreach
The mission of Crescent’s Outreach program is straightforward yet powerful: to help students develop compassion, empathy, civic engagement, and leadership skills through authentic experiences. Outreach is all about making a difference, be it large or small. What’s most inspiring to me is that the changes I witness are not just about the impact on our partner organizations, but in the personal growth and self-actualization of our students engaged in the program.
Outreach spans all School divisions from Grades 3 to 12. Each division has its own dedicated committee filled with passionate students eager to make their mark. The program attracts a wide range of participants with various interests and passions: student-athletes, debaters, actors, robotics enthusiasts, and more routinely come together for a shared purpose. Their actions are wholly altruistic, and they give of themselves selflessly and generously. Our incredible faculty leads play a large role in cultivating interest and participation from our students: Mr. Donahue, Ms. Basinski, Ms. DiVincenzo, Ms. Nunes, Mr. Simoni, Mr. Paulino-Sanz, Ms. Tudora, and Mr. Campbell give their time, guidance, and dedication to developing our young leaders.
Our community partners also play an invaluable role in the character development opportunities that Outreach offers. These organizations graciously welcome our students into their environments, allowing them to experience firsthand what it means to uplift others. In the process, our students become community champions fighting for a cause.
A shining example is our long-standing partnership with the Bob Rumball Canadian Centre of Excellence for the Deaf. This relationship has shaped our students’ understanding of inclusion and the beauty of American Sign Language (ASL). Recently, two Upper School students presented our work on ASL awareness at the Student Action Summit hosted by the Lovett School in Atlanta, an opportunity made possible through the generous support of the Racioppo Local Endowment Fund. Seeing these two students, who have been part of Outreach since Lower School, speak with confidence, passion, and purpose was a proud moment not just for me, but for our entire community.
There are so many other wonderful examples that I can hold up. This fall alone, our Outreach teams have provided lunch kits for the homeless, organised clothing for newcomers, collected food for the Daily Bread Food Bank, raised money in support of men’s mental, social, and physical health, and led a school-wide Holiday Cheer Campaign supporting The Children’s Book Bank, Rosalie Hall, the Salvation Army, the Shoebox Project, Moorelands Kids, and Food4Kids.
None of this would be possible without the love, generosity, and spirit of our community, who help us create life-changing experiences that shape students into caring, confident individuals ready to make the world a better place.
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