Cate School students find virtual ways to keep helping Manitou House and others
COVID-19 isn’t preventing Cate School students from giving back to the community.
The high school youths have found safe and effective ways to keep performing the school’s good deeds, which started long before the pandemic.
Since the early 1980s, Cate students have volunteered every Wednesday night as a part of the Carpinteria school’s Public Service Night program.
Cate students spend their time volunteering for five local organizations. One of them is UCP WORK Inc.’s Manitou House, where six adults with developmental disabilities live. For almost 40 years, five of the six men have lived together at the Santa Barbara site. The sixth man moved in later.
On Wednesdays throughout the school year, the Manitou House is filled with fun and laughter as a half dozen or so Cate students stop by each week to play games and relax with the men living there. That was life before COVID-19.
Manitou House residents and Cate School students celebrate one of the men’s birthdays.
During the transition to online learning during the pandemic, Will Holmes, Cate School’s director of community engagement, said he wasn’t sure how the public service programs would continue and was amazed by the overwhelming support from students at keeping the programs alive despite the pandemic.
The students found a way to continue their game night by using the video conferencing platform Zoom.
“It’s always been a really big deal in their lives, but now it’s really needed,” said Jennifer Sills, director of independent living at UCP WORK Inc., referring to the residents’ love for the game night. “I don’t think they have missed a week. It’s just really wonderful to see.”
Ms. Sills told the News-Press the men at the Manitou house are “all very independent, they all have and live their own lives.” But she added they have been hit extra hard during the pandemic because they are elderly and considered high-risk.
Through the help of UCP WORK Inc., some of the men work for the maintenance staff at the Santa Barbara waterfront. However, the pandemic has prevented the men from working their various jobs to pay rent for the house and from doing all the other things they normally enjoy.
WORK Inc. is a nonprofit founded by the Kiwanis of Santa Barbara and was created to provide vocational training programs for people with developmental disabilities.
In 2003, WORK Inc. merged with UCP of Santa Barbara to form UCP WORK Inc. On its website, the organization explains it is “dedicated to providing services to residents of the Tri-Counties with mental and/or physical disabilities, so that they may work and live independently as contributing citizens within the community of their choice.”
Ms. Sills said that because of the pandemic, the Zoom calls have become an important source of consistency with regular life as well as “a wonderful way for the guys to interact with people who aren’t from our staff.”
To keep up with the normal tradition, the men from Manitou house sport their own Cate shirts and play bingo during the Zoom game nights.
“I think everybody gets something out of it,” Ms. Sills said. “Some of the students now had their parents doing this when they were students, so there is just a real legacy here.”
“They get along fabulously,” Ms. Sills said. “You can really tell that they want to be there and that they aren’t doing it because they have to.”
Even without the pandemic, it is not required for Cate students to do any sort of service hours or volunteer work.
“They get along fabulously,” Ms. Sills said. “You can really tell that they want to be there and that they aren’t doing it because they have to.”
In addition to playing games and bringing treats to the men at Manitou house, Cate School students volunteer at other sites such as PATH Santa Barbara, Transition House in Santa Barbara, and Shepherd Place Apartments and Cornerstone House, both in Carpinteria.
As they have done at the Manitou house, students have found ways to continue volunteering at these places during the COVID-19 pandemic through Zoom, video recordings and charitable donations.
“Really rich experience for everyone involved,” Mr. Holmes said.
He said some students such as Santa Barbara native Finnian Whelan have gone out of their way to keep making the men at the Manitou company during the pandemic.
Mr. Holmes said that even though Ms. Whelan has recently graduated from Cate School, she has been bringing the men treats on her own.
“Talk about taking initiative!” Mr. Holmes said. “She really has been a star this spring.”
Ms. Whelan described her efforts in a news release.
“I really enjoy this leadership position, because it allows me to teach other students that the best way to make a difference in the local community, is to give both effort and compassion,” she said.
“I get the privilege of doing little deeds, like making cookies and brownies for the men at Manitou, to spread a bit of joy. One hour of baking is not a sacrifice when I see the residents smile and wave when I drop off treats.”
FYI
For more information about Cate School, go to www.cate.org.
