Grade 12 Student Brings Good Shepherd Volunteer Initiative to SMCS
A recent student-led service initiative at St. Michael’s College School (SMCS) brought our community together to support a great cause and encouraged students to get a little messy in the process.
Maddox Ganesh, Grade 12, first had the idea of bringing the Good Shepherd Ministries’ ‘Bake4Good’ initiative to SMCS over a year ago.
“I wanted to bring the Bake4Good initiative to SMCS because our school’s new ideology is to ‘be the good,’ and I have been donating baked goods to the Good Shepherd for over a year,” says Ganesh, who has personally prepared and donated more than 1,000 baked goods. “During that time, I witnessed firsthand the positive impact my contributions had on the community. I realized that by involving the SMCS community, I could not only promote the value of ‘being the good’ but also spread the joy of giving.”
Bake4Good is a volunteer opportunity offered by the Good Shepherd that encourages the community to bake treats from home then deliver them to the Good Shepherd, where they’ll be donated to people who are homeless.
“This initiative is important to me because I live in Toronto, where I see many homeless individuals every day,” he says. “Reflecting on my life compared to theirs made me recognize my potential to help. This initiative is also important because it allows students at St. Mike’s to give back to their community. I’ve often heard about vicious cycles of violence and addiction, but rarely about cycles of joy. This initiative provides an opportunity to contribute to those cycles of joy and bring positivity to others.”
The initiative was combined with this month’s Teacher Advisory Group (TAG) session and witnessed students from all grades participating with home baked cookies, banana bread, muffins, cakes, and more.
“The goal of this TAG initiative was to provide a hands-on service opportunity,” says Andrew Kiel ’09, Coordinator of Spiritual Life and TAG Coordinator. “Connecting with the theme of service in Mr. Fitzpatrick’s Blue Notes, he provided tangible examples to reflect on how we can better our community. Our goal was to set that intention into action. This was a school-wide service initiative for us to demonstrate what it means to ‘Be The Good’.”
Ganesh worked with Kiel on incorporating the Bake4Good initiative into the TAG programme which also included building hygiene kits and collecting gently used winter clothing to donate to the Out of the Cold Program
“Over Christmas break, I thought about ways to integrate Bake4Good into TAG,” says Ganesh. “After the break, I resumed organizing the initiative with Mr. Kiel, and we confirmed that the Good Shepherd would send a truck to St. Mike’s to collect the baked goods.”
To help spread the word, Ganesh filmed a video for the school’s morning announcements explaining the initiative, its importance, and how students could also earn volunteer hours for their efforts. To earn up to two community service hours, students were required to take photos of themselves baking and with their finished items post them to the Bake4Good Edsby group.
“Maddox has continuously demonstrated what it means to lead with his heart,” says Kiel. “His commitment to this initiative goes well beyond service hours. It was an initiative which brought our school community together, fostering a greater sense of empathy and making a tangible difference in our greater community. Maddox has demonstrated that service goes beyond a graduation requirement and is an essential part of who we are at St. Michael’s College School.”
During the allotted time for TAG on the day schedule, students were called down to the main office to drop off their baked goods – filling 30 boxes of sweet treats!
“I feel a strong need to give back to the world after it has given so much to me,” says Ganesh. “I have been fortunate to receive many second chances in life, and I want to use the privileges I’ve been afforded to help my local community.”
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