As part of the new and improved Big Sister/Little Sister program at Padua, each sister pair was required to perform three hours of direct service together for the month of February. There was a variety of service opportunities. Some girls wen to the Bellevue Community Center to paint wall, others mad peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the Emmanuel Dining Room, and some sorted clothes at the Delaware Clothing Bank.

On February 26, the freshman and senior class gathered in the cafetorium to reflect and share about the service they did. Big sister Abby White said, “doing service together and spending time with my little sister outside of school helped us to get to know one another better and become closer.” Foreign language teacher Mrs. Burris and Mrs. Bilbao led the event and offered the students and opportunity to share what they did for service.

This was followed by watching a TED talk from YouTube. TED talks are speeches given at conferences which are all about “ideas worth sharing.” In the video, Drew Dudley discussed how anyone can be a leader and affect someone’s life without even knowing it. He had given a woman a lollypop when she was just a stranger to him. In doing so, he inspired her to be a better person and also introduced her to her future husband. Years later, she told him about this but he had no recollection of the event. All the girls left the cafetorium with a lollypop so they could continue what they learned about service and leadership, by hopefully making someone’s day just that much better.