WASHINGTON (AP) – When the pandemic shut schools two years ago, Scott Losavio faced a problem afflicting students, administrators and communities everywhere: What happens when all the student volunteers disappear?
As service coordinator at Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Losavio helps students fulfill the school’s requirement to perform community service hours. Juniors must do 40 “Type A” volunteer hours, where they have direct contact with the people being served, and seniors must do 20.
Packing boxes in a food bank warehouse doesn’t qualify, but serving meals in a soup kitchen does. “We want them to have a real human interaction and develop a sense of passion and empathy for people that are suffering,” Losavio said.
All of that, of course, became nearly impossible when the coronavirus pandemic sent students home in the midst of the 2019-2020 school year and kept them home for the following year as communities shut down and people were told to avoid direct contact.
Now with the pandemic potentially fading, school administrators are anticipating returning to the pre-COVID-19 days of unhindered volunteerism. Not a moment too soon at Catholic High School. “I work with teenagers all day, and I know what kind of knuckleheads they are,” Losavio said. “But I also know that when they’re out there helping other people, that’s when they’re at their best.”