The stereotype that teenagers are “lazy” and “self-centered” is a hard one to shake. Even at school, many students tend to join clubs that serve their own interests or allow them to compete against others in some way. However, at ETHS, facilitators Erin Claeys and Onyekaorise Chigbogwu are flipping the script with the Community Service Club.
One of the largest clubs at ETHS, Community Service Club miraculously has enough volunteering opportunities for between all 250 to 500 of its members. Claeys claims it differs from other ETHS clubs because of “how flexible it is.” They add, “You’re able to opt in, opt out and just show up and help serve.” The turnout for their monthly meetings, held during lunch in A252, consistently defies expectations; as soon as the bell chimes for Lunch A, a sea of people floods through the doors and grabs a plate for free pizza before sitting down. After ample time for eating, the six different committees command the room’s attention with a slideshow chock full of volunteer opportunities that month. The committees – health, climate action, food access, closet, outreach, and tutoring – are each headed by four–six student leaders who work diligently to plan events for volunteers. Prospective volunteers at the meetings then scan a QR code on the slideshow and begin their service journey. The club’s unofficial slogan, “solidarity not charity,” precedes and guides the work they do to better the ETHS and Evanston community.
The Community Service Club welcomes any student to become a volunteer and encourages service for a myriad of reasons. “Sometimes students do service because they want to get the hours for Honors Society, or they want to check that box,” Claeys observes, with a chuckle. “They want to get into college.” While some would chastise this so-called “performative” volunteering, Claeys believes that any time spent in service of others is time well spent. “Once you’re in here, be working from a place of genuine care,” Claeys reminds. The best volunteers, in Claeys’ eyes, are “willing to take on an activity, willing to meet new people and to be flexible.”
The impact of this volunteer work is heard by the Evanston community. “Whether it’s seeing the impact that Gold Out has had on students, helping out at Evanston Grows by providing a ton of hands for garden work days or even something smaller… when I look at them together, Community Service Club makes such an impact on Evanston and ETHS, ” says Claeys.
This impact is exactly why Climate Action Committee leader Gemma Callam applied to take on a leadership role in the club. “It was all about giving back to a community that has helped me grow as a person,” Callam says. “And I do so next to a great and supportive group of students.”
Community Service Club’s impact reaches students in many ways. Tutoring Committee head Lydian Green remembers looking up to community service leaders as a freshman, regarding them as role models. Now, three years later, Green thanks the club for what it has done for her. “The club has become a community within a community for me,” she remarks. “It helped spark my interest in social justice that I hope to carry beyond ETHS.” Claeys echoes this attitude. “What’s most exciting for me to see is the leaders come into their own and get more comfortable leading, serving and talking to people,” they voice. Looking forward, Claeys hopes to solve the mystery of students coming to Community Service Club meetings, but not signing up for service. “What’s that missing link that’s preventing them from actually coming in and supporting?” they wonder.
“More people, more money, more soup, more joy, more everything!” answers Isaiah Turk, co-head of the Empty Bowl publicity committee. And this seems to be the sentiment this year for Community Service Club’s Empty Bowl fundraiser. Empty Bowl is an enchanting twenty-plus year tradition at ETHS, started in the nineties by former ETHS Community Service Club facilitator Barbara Zimmer. In West Cafeteria, themed decorations stream down from the ceiling and wrap around the posts. Staff and students are greeted by chipper volunteers and tables laden with the comforting aroma of soup, shiny ceramic bowls and art pieces ready to be auctioned. Created to fundraise for local organizations addressing food access, seven different varieties of soup are made from scratch by the culinary classes as well as nutrition services at ETHS. Eventgoers can then purchase ceramic “soup” bowls, made by the ceramics classes, for five dollars. The bowls themselves match the theme of the event, which this year is “under the sea.” Art made by students and local artists is displayed for a silent auction with teachers. Last year, over $3,000 was raised and donated to organizations like Connections for the Homeless and the Greater Chicago Food Depository, making the laborious publicity, art production and, of course, cooking that much more worthwhile.
Given Empty Bowl’s impressive outcome last year, one might be surprised to learn that this is only Claeys’ fourth year working at ETHS. They took the job right after graduating from Northwestern a few years ago. Originally from Virginia, Claeys says they have always felt a need to serve; in high school, they planned a school-wide day of service, so working in the community service office at ETHS was a natural fit. Over the past four years, Claeys has worked tirelessly to increase student participation in community service by 15 percent; however, it is only their second year leading Empty Bowl. Previously, former Community Service Club facilitator Diana Balitaan worked closely with students to plan it. However, Claeys reminds that, like most other Community Service Club events, Empty Bowl is truly student-run. “There’s just so many students who feel so strongly about making Empty Bowl a success and taking on a bigger leadership role in service,” Claeys beamed. Last year, as Claeys was learning the ropes of planning Empty Bowl, tricky last minute logistics became unnecessary burdens, but this year they are confident the event will run smoother.
As an integral part of Claeys’ participation plan for Empty Bowl this year, juniors Isaiah Turk and Libby Moreno became co-heads of the Empty Bowl publicity committee. Both Turk and Moreno have been involved since freshman year, enticed by the creative “log cabin” theme that year. “It just seemed like a really fun event – it was cute, it had soup,” Turk relays. “Erin told us to help out with it,” the two sheepishly laugh. As sophomores, they took their involvement to a new level, digging into the community service office costume bin to pull out the infamous spoon and fork costumes. Isaiah wearing the fork costume and Libby the spoon made their Tuesday Tidbits debut last November in a witty skit. They have since amped up their publicity game by posting TikToks in the costumes to current trends and posting them to the Community Service Club Instagram. “I love the unseriousness of it,” Moreno says. Turk agrees: “We just get to have fun, and we’re both pretty comfortable being on camera.” Indeed, the “drama” that Turk and Moreno promote is an ideal way for them to drum up support for the event.
While Empty Bowl is, numbers-wise, one of the largest fundraisers Community Service Club boasts, Moreno feels that many are unfamiliar with the event. “My hope with our publicity is that Empty Bowl becomes an even bigger event,” she says. “Most people I talk to don’t know what it is!” Claeys agrees that Empty Bowl is largely staff-attended, and there is a noticeable lack of student turnout. The planning process for Empty Bowl is a long haul, including arranging times for soup tasting, reaching out to bakeries in Evanston for food donations and making jellyfish-like streamers to fit the “under the sea” theme. “The hardest part is that everyone has really great ideas and we can’t use them all,” Moreno laments. Empty Bowl will be held in West Cafeteria on December 11 during both lunches. Stop by to taste flavorful soup, marvel at the aquatic decorations and shell-ebrate for a good cause.
