On April 17th, while thousands of students all across Massachusetts are preparing for April Vacation, 20 students and 3 teachers from Scituate High School will be embarking on a trip to Puebla, Mexico. Instead of going to the movies and hanging out with friends, these students and teachers will be helping with agricultural work and volunteering at an after-school program right in the heart of Mexico.

     In Puebla, the average resident lives on a salary of less than $300 and poverty is common for most who live in the city. As well as being a service trip, this is a cultural excursion. Students will have an opportunity to walk through the ancient catacombs, eat some of the local cuisine, interact with locals and see some of the thousands of churches, Aztec ruins and the Popocatépetl volcano near Puebla.

     This service trip to Mexico marks the seventh time that the Community Service Club has gone to a foreign country to help those who are less fortunate. They have gone to Guatemala four times; Peru once and Mexico twice. Every year the trip runs, those who go are changed for the better due to the experiences they have had.

     Jonny Ricci, senior and President of the Community Service Club, will be going on his fourth service trip this April. Jonny has been personally affected by these trips and said, “With those children…and those things that I have seen always in the back of my mind, it kind of pushes me forward.”

     One of the math teachers at Scituate High School, Ms. Hallihan, founded the Community Service Club seven years ago and will be chaperoning the trip this year. Alongside her as chaperones will be Mr. Brogna, a former history teacher at Scituate High School and veteran of the trip, as well newcomer, Mr. Kovach, who is a French teacher at Scituate High School. In an interview with Ms. Hallihan about the upcoming trip, she said that “people who go on the trip come back with a greater and deeper compassion for people in general, not just Mexicans or Guatemalans. And so I think that people just come back with bigger hearts.”

     I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go on the trip last year to Tamahu, Guatemala, and I am going this year to Puebla, Mexico. The trip last year completely changed my life. I witnessed poverty like I had never seen before and made friends there that I will never forget. Being able to give back to those less fortunate is such a rewarding experience. The best moment of these service trips is when you are able to make someone else smile. Something as minor as playing soccer with the local kids can mean the world to them. The Mexico Service Trip is a great way for students in Scituate to give back to the poor and needy people in struggling communities around the world.

By Cameron Blanks