Dedicated Days of Service

Senior Community Service Day

On the eve of graduation, Taft seniors embark on a Senior Community Service Day, when they return one more time to serve the organizations they have come to know well during their time at Taft. Often their work is a continuation of ongoing service projects, or new initiatives with longtime service partners. It is at once an opportunity to serve the community, and a final salute to service as a Taft student.

Lower Mid Service Initiative

Taft recently introduced an End-of-Year “Crash*,” a multi-day exploration of concepts, ideas, themes, and activities that typically fall outside of the academic year curriculum. (*Did you know that a group of Rhinos is called a crash?) For lower mids—our freshmen—one full day during that program is dedicated to service. In the morning, they work exclusively for partners in Watertown, the place we call home. In the afternoon, they work on campus, primarily supporting our year-end Green Rhino Initiative. At the end of each school year, students are invited to donate their unused, unwanted, or unpackable items to benefit local nonprofits and service providers. Lower mids help with the sorting and distribution of those items, which in recent years have been delivered to a local homeless shelter, Goodwill, the Salvation Army, organizations supporting families in financial distress, a nonprofit helping refugees start new lives in Connecticut, and a group helping those transitioning from homelessness to first homes.