Bulletin Preview | Q and A with Will Holmes, Director of Public Service
December 21, 2016
Preview from the Cate School Bulletin Fall 2016 issue
Will Holmes has been at Cate for 16 years, first as a math teacher and now as the Director of the Public Service Program. The program touches all aspects of School life. Weekly events take students to five places in Carpinteria and Santa Barbara. Stevens House is a group home for six men with minor cognitive delays. They own the home together and can’t wait to listen to a beloved ABBA CD and beat Cate students at Yahtzee. At Cornerstone, also a group home — but for those with severe disabilities — Cate students sing to the residents. At Shepard’s, a senior apartment complex, students play bingo with a group of enthusiasts, one of whom recently celebrated her 100th birthday. Students prepare and serve meals at Casa Esperanza, a transitional housing center for homeless single adults, while they participate in the children’s program at Transition House, a center for homeless families. In addition, students and faculty participate in one or two school-wide service days each year, sponsor several local families with the Holiday Cheer program, raise money and awareness for the Public Service Program with a Walkathon-Bikeathon, and take two annual trips to Mexicali, Mexico to work with an organization called Los Niños.
We spoke to Will about the challenges and opportunities of directing such a program at a school whose motto is Servons.
Q: Cate has been holding Public Service Night (which used to be called Foster Homes Night) each week for years. Where have Cate students served the longest?
A: We’ve been at Stevens House for at least 35 years and Transition House for almost that long.
Q: Over the years that you’ve been involved in public service, do you see a difference in how the students serve?
A: Cate students look outward so much sooner than I did. Public service has been an integral part of the Cate culture since long before I arrived, unlike at my high school back in the ‘80s.
Q: Do you think it’s important that Cate participates in such a wide variety of projects?
A: The ideal impact of public service, in addition to the work that’s accomplished, is simply to bring awareness to the social issues that are being uncovered by the need that’s being addressed. Awareness brings empathy, then compassion, then a lifetime of service.
Q: Is there a Cate project that you think is especially effective at promoting awareness among the students?
A: You never know what will impact someone. It might be shopping and delivering Holiday Cheer and realizing that a whole family lives in a garage or in a space too small to allow the students even to enter. It might be realizing that an agitated person calms down when he hears music. It might even be a conversation in the back of a Yukon after a service night and a stop for Blender’s.
Q: The Los Niños project is different from the rest, as it involves spending three days in Mexicali and in a tiny neighborhood of Los Algodones, a place without reliable water, electricity, or plumbing. Do you think the length of the project makes a difference?
A: I love all the places we go, but Los Niños is a particular favorite because it’s different each trip but always so powerful. Sometimes, when students are listening to a presentation by some women who run a border assistance program to help the newly deported, a bus pulls up from the United States. Suddenly, instead of just listening, the students are handing out soup and water. They will never forget what they learn about culture, about border politics, about the lives of other people.
Q: The Walkathon/Bikeathon has included students on paddleboards, in kayaks, and even once, memorably, a student on a unicycle wearing a Speedo. The event raises money and awareness. How does this work?
A: Students solicit pledges from one another, from faculty, and from their parents for the miles they travel. However, in a Cate twist, often the pledges come with a challenge to complete at the finish line. My favorites are the group challenges, like when the entire girls’ varsity lacrosse team had to reach a common goal for pushups.
Q: The Cate Public Service Program is thriving. But if you could wave your magic wand, what would you change?
A: More money and more time, of course. That way every student could have public service opportunities all the time.