Volunteer Program

Volunteer Program students

Taft’s Volunteer Program serves a variety of local constituencies including the Red Cross, the St. Vincent De Paul Homeless Shelter, Girls' Inc., Children's Community School, Casa Bienvenida, Watertown elementary schools, nursing homes, the YMCA and local affiliates of Habitat for Humanity. Students have the opportunity to participate in a program by choosing community service as their extracurricular activity.

Each year a number of service trips are offered as well, over March vacation or the summer vacation. Past grouped have done builds for Habitat for Humanity in Mexico and South Carolina, and for several years students have returned to Orphanage Outreach in the Dominican Republic.

For more information about Taft’s Volunteer Program, please contact Baba Frew.

Community Service Day

Taft Community Service Day students

Community Service Day began in 1995 with the mission to expose students to different service opportunities and to reach out to the community. Together, each year, we complete over 5,000 manhours in one day.

Inspired by Taft's motto—not to be served but to serve—all of Taft’s students and faculty devote a day to community service.

Highlights of the outreach have included helping the Connecticut Food Bank organize their food stores; trail maintenance for the CT forest and Parks Association; painting a mural for Family Services of Greater Waterbury; working on a Habitat for Humanity builds; building and maintaining trails for Flanders Nature Center; cleaning and clerical work at the Palace and Warner theaters; assistance to the United Way of Greater Waterbury; Collegium, our school choral group, and the Jazz Ensemble performing to nearby nursing homes; making care packages for the homeless shelter; and numerous projects for local houses of worship.

In conjunction with the off-campus programs, we coordinate a town-wide food drive, raising needed supplies for Watertown Food Bank. We also host 140 local third-graders in a full day of educational and recreational activities on campus.

If your organization is interested please click the link above for more information, or contact Jeremy Clifford at 860-945-7845.

Service Learning

Service Learning students

Taft’s “Service-Learning” course combines rigorous academic classes with challenging community service.

Classroom work focuses on issues such as poverty, public health, immigration, environment and education. Students spend at least one session per week in the local community working with local partners, for example at hospitals, homeless shelters, after school programs and environmental sites. All students complete regular written assignments as well as one major individual research paper.

Additionally, grants are available to students from two of the school’s endowed funds: Robert Keyes Poole '50 Fellowships and Meg Page '74 Fellowships.

THE TAFT SCHOOL  | 110 Woodbury Road | Watertown, Connecticut 06795 | 860-945-7777 | Info@TaftSchool.org