As Henry the 8th said to one of his wives, “I won’t keep you long”. Good evening, members and guests of the Lions Club. The average American high school student is in school 7 hours a day, from 8AM to 3PM and is asleep 9 hours a day, from 10PM to 7AM. Over the years, I have noticed that San Mateo County high school students are not your average American high school students. Most of us are at school from sunrise to sunset, club meeting here, track meet there, “mom! I’ll be home for dinner by six!” That’s 10 hours a day at school! Thank God I’m graduating soon. And 9 hours of sleep a day? Who sleeps 9 hours a day? I know I don’t, I’ll be lucky to get 6. And now they’re asking us to do community service? On weekends?Over the years, interest in community service has slowly declined. People are hesitant to give their time and are more likely to point fingers and say, “community service? That’s their job.” Whose job? Some will say that community service is the government’s responsibility. They have the funds and the manpower. However, we see that the government is slowly abandoning the country’s needy by such actions as welfare reform. In 1996, the states were allowed to cut welfare benefits to those who need them most. Professor Coffin at Harvard University, believes that “governments are not good at creating a fabric of care in communities” anyway, and that THAT should be where the churches come in. And by some estimates, churches spend a total of $12 billion dollars a year on services for the needy. That number however, does not include the volunteers and their countless hours of service. Yet, community service is still declining. Why?Some say its because the kids aren’t helping out. Kids these days don’t care about their community. Schools have to make community service a requirement to be able ...
