We need to put 'community' back in community service

CHANCES ARE at one time or another you have been approached by a friend, family member, neighbor or co-worker to donate to their child's fundraising efforts.

I have no problem supporting things like band camp, the school play, a class trip or raising money for one of their school clubs. They are worthy causes and these school activities and programs help a child discover and develop their passions.

I was recently at a social gathering and listened to a parent proudly talk about her daughter's recent return from a service mission to New Orleans organized at her high school. A group of seniors had given up their spring break to help rebuild areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

As the parent talked about the trip and the fundraising the daughter had to undertake, I couldn't help but wonder: Does a student really have to travel 1,100 miles to do community service? When you have to travel that far to do good, it takes the concept of "community" out of community service.

Instead of Katrina, why not Camden, Chester or Kensington? There is certainly no end to people and families that could benefit from a group of dedicated high school seniors for a week. Unfortunately, that type of commonsense thinking is often absent at parochial schools, where many of these community service "missions" are organized.

While they may be well-intentioned, these faraway community-service projects are nothing more than expensive class trips.

Let's look at the financial aspect first. For a group of, say, a dozen students and two to three chaperones, a weeklong trip to some domestic locale or Third World country probably costs about $2,000 per student. That's a lot of fundraising.

It costs $30,000 for the group, and the majority of the money raised has to cover their transportation, food and lodging. And many of these service missions take place in countries where the economic standard of living might be between $2 and $3 a day.

Wouldn't that 30 grand be better spent donating it to a local organization, where it could have enormous financial impact? Instead of one project, that money could have gone toward building homes or schools, for example, if used locally.

Of course, there will no doubt be critics who claim this type of negativity will suppress a student's desire to devote themselves to community service. But what does it say about our value system when the only way we can interest kids in community service is to entice them with a trip to New Orleans, Honduras or some other faraway place?

Another reason for cultivating a local community-service mind-set is that you remove an imposing economic barrier. Many families can't afford to shell out a thousand dollars or more so their child can work in a needy country for a week. Take the cost out of the equation and you can recruit more student volunteers for local service projects.

About 20 years ago in Camden, Campbell's Soup demolished its antiquated manufacturing plant. Amid the rubble, one of the towers - painted to look like a can of soup - survived the demolition.

An engineer working next door at General Electric had an epiphany: He got a local bank to support his "Yes We Can Save the Can" campaign. While many people admired his unbridled, idealistic enthusiasm, I took him to task on my radio show. Yes, his plan to save a giant can from the junk heap made for some media coverage, but it was a shame his enthusiasm was so misplaced.

He began a $100,000 fundraising crusade to save the can and have it restored. He said it was an "omen." Despite his passionate sermon about saving the Campbell's Soup can, he neglected to look at the condition of his pulpit - the city of Camden itself.

Camden was in even worse shape 20 years ago than it is today. Crime, poverty, broken-down buildings and a population with a broken-down spirit. Instead of seeing the desperation in Camden, what made the headlines there? A crazy crusade to save a giant soup can.

This same type of thinking permeates many schools when it comes to organizing student community-service initiatives.

We often call our politicians "public servants," and this provides a great analogy. Politicians often stay in office when they make constituent service a priority. Getting potholes fixed isn't glamorous, but it demonstrates to constituents that they understand what is important: Fix the potholes - the local potholes - and not some grandiose project.

Tip O'Neil once said, "All politics is local." Shouldn't the same thinking be applied to students who are interested in community service?