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Programs

Service Learning

Service as a Way of Life

At DCD, scholarship and citizenship are interdependent. Central to DCD’s mission is a commitment to “inspire students to become caring, ethical members of the larger world by emphasizing thoughtful citizenship and respect for self and others.” For more than a century, our school has been committed to building relationships with people and organizations beyond the borders of our campus, engaging in work that serves the larger community.



Students in every grade participate in some age-appropriate service work during the year, and in Middle School, students take the lead in developing and carrying out their own projects.

Through our service learning program and the daily examples set by our teachers, DCD students learn that small acts of kindness and caring can make a big difference to others.

Service Learning Coordinators

List of 2 members.

  • Photo of Daniel Balk

    Daniel Balk 

    Assistant Athletic Director, Physical Education Teacher, Grade 6 History Teacher
  • Photo of Colleen Hultgren

    Mrs. Colleen Hultgren 

    Grade 3 Teacher

Service Learning joins students, faculty, and parents together.

  • DCD’s Parent Association maintains a Community Outreach Committee made up of parent and faculty representatives who work together to coordinate, and execute both school-wide and class-specific projects.
  • DCD holds a special school-wide community service day in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Middle School students participate in five community service afternoons during the year and have the opportunity to exercise entrepreneurial skills, creativity, and leadership through initiating their own service experiences.  
During the school year, DCD students across every grade level complete over 30 different service projects and drives to benefit the greater community. 

Explore Some of DCD’s Service learning activities

List of 18 items.

Community Service News

  • DCD’s Green Club Explores Composting

    During Friday’s middle school service-learning afternoon, DCD’s Green Club met with Adam Jankauskasfrom City Compost to learn about the process and benefits of composting. Currently, City Compost is working with over 2000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts to collect food scraps and process this material into finished compost.
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  • Patriots Player stops by Special Olympics practice at DCD

    Patriots player Obi Melifonwu stopped by DCD for the final Special Olympics flag football practice of the fall last Monday, a thrill for the five seventh-grade boys who have been playing with the team all fall as volunteers! Neil Burmeister, Willy Connors, LJ Gage, Owen Hotra, and Gabe Salfity made it to all the practices, which took place on Mondays this fall from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. on the front field at DCD.

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  • DCD Middle School Student Evan Michaeli Takes a Stand Against Plastic Bags

    DCD seventh grader Evan Michaeli is a testament to the impact that young people can have on the issues affecting our planet. Evan founded the school's student-run Green Club along with his brother Drew, a sixth grader, and eighth grader Matthew Volfson. An ardent environmentalist, Evan recently presented his views about the environmental risks of plastic bags to the Town of Dedham's Sustainability Committee.

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  • DCD’s Cradles to Crayons Event Helps 955 Boston Area Kids!

    Teaming up with Cradles to Crayons on Saturday morning February 2, DCD families came together to sort and organize all of the donations the school had received from the community for its month-long clothing and toy drive to benefit children in the Boston area. DCD has had a long-standing relationship with the Cradles to Crayons organization with our middle school students often spending their volunteer afternoons working at their facility in Brighton. 
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  • Stories of Service Shared in Honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day

    On Friday, January 17, the DCD community came together for its annual day of service in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.  The day began with two presentations from adults who talked about their experiences and the need they felt to serve others.
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  • Kids Helping Kids: Grade 2 Students Hold a Walkathon for the Global Center for Glycogen Storage Disease

    For their MLK Jr. Community Service Day project,  second grade students held a Walkathon to raise money for the Global Center for Glycogen Storage Disease. This charity is particularly meaningful to DCD since Maren Ouellette, first grader and sister of Avery in the second grade, was diagnosed with this disease when she was 10 months old. The center does critical research and provides treatment to those with GSD. 


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  • Seventh Grader Creates "Rescue Bones" to Help Animals at ARL

    A huge animal lover, seventh grader Ethan Rosensweig has been baking and selling dog treats in support of the Animal Rescue League of Boston for his "Mitzvah Project" with DCD Community Outreach. 

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  • Lift Every Voice and Sing

    On Friday, January 12, the entire DCD community—parents, teachers, and students—lifted their voices in song and their hands in service to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
     
    This Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a somber reminder that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s assassination at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.


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  • DCD students spend a free afternoon volunteering for Cradles to Crayons

    Almost 25 volunteers spent the afternoon of Friday, April 28, sorting and organizing recycled clothes and toys for children living in and around Boston. 
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  • Eighth grader Kathryn Cloonan gains valuable lessons in philanthropy

    At a recent assembly, eighth grader Kathryn Cloonan gave a presentation on her experience last summer workting at Youth In Philanthropy, an organization for teenagers who are looking to make a positive impact on their communities.
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  • Dedham Country Day middle school students, who spearheaded the school’s annual Thanksgiving food drive, collected 24

    DCD Donates Thanksgiving Meals to Local Families

    Every student from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8 contributed items to DCD's annual Thanksgiving Basket Food Drive, together filling 24 large bins containing all the fixings for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, including pies and homemade bread. DCD donated the food baskets to the Dedham Youth Commission (DYC) for distribution to local families.

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  • DCD Team Joins the Walk for Hunger

    On Sunday, May 1, 2016, a team of DCD walkers joined the more than 40,000 people who came together for the annual Walk for Hunger, now in its 48th year. 

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  • Nothing but Nets raises funds to stop malaria

    Nothing but Nets raises funds to stop malaria
    The rescheduled Nothing but Nets shoot-a-thon on Friday, May 13, was successful in raising $870, the highest yearly total raised to date, to send mosquito netting to Africa to help stop the transmission of malaria. Over the past nine years, the shoot-a-thon has raised a total of $6,000. 
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  • Students pledge to take action in honor of Earth Day

    DCD students celebrated Earth Day this year by writing out their Earth Day pledges on paper leaves, which were then attached to paper trees displayed around the school on Earth Day. Each student pledged to protect the earth by doing one small thing to help. 

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  • DCD Celebrates the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?"
    -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    DCD's annual celebration of service in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. took place on Friday, January 15, with children of all ages engaging in various community service projects.
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  • Middle school students, who spearheaded the annual Thanksgiving food drive, collected 21

    DCD Donates Thanksgiving Meals to Local Families

    Every student from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8 contributed items to Dedham Country Day School’s annual Thanksgiving Basket Food Drive. Together they filled 21 large bins containing all the fixings for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, including pies and homemade bread. DCD donated the food baskets to the Dedham Youth Commission (DYC) for distribution to local families.
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  • Halloween Candy Drive

    During the week of November 2-6, DCD students and their families collected Halloween candy to help Operation: American Soldier in a partnership with Chestnut Dental, located in Needham and Franklin, Massachusetts. Middle school volunteers sorted the collected candy by type (hard candy, sticky candy, chocolates) and then prepared these treats to be mailed to our soldiers overseas along with toothbrushes and toothpaste from Chestnut Dental. More than ten 10-lb bags of candy were collected and donated.
     
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  • DCD Students Volunteer at Cradles to Crayons

    Promoting Warmth! DCD Winter Coat Drive

    As a community service project, a group of Middle School students organized a school-wide Winter Coat Drive, collecting winter clothing for children in need. On Friday, November 13th, students representing all grades at DCD and their parents, delivered  donations made by our school community to the Cradles to Crayons' Giving Factory in Boston and stayed for an afternoon of volunteering.
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  • Every Day is Earth Day at DCD!

    Did you know that DCD composts and uses it in the community garden?  We recycle milk cartons, cans and bottles, and classroom paper in order to reduce waste. On April 22, in honor of Earth Day, DCD highlighted our community's continuing efforts to support our environment and minimize waste with a Food Waste Awareness Event.
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  • Students volunteer at Cradles to Crayons

    A group of Middle School students organized a Winter Wonder Drive, collecting winter clothing for children in need. On Friday, February 6 we donated the clothing and volunteered at Cradles to Crayons' Giving Factory in Boston.
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