Community Service

Community service is a big part of Academy life, here are some of the highlights:

Woodward Community Contributes to Earthquake Relief in Haiti

Woodward Academy raised $13,925 for CARE to help provide relief to victims of the Haiti earthquake. The Academy collected monetary donations in each school division. The school chose to partner with CARE because of its ability to get aid directly to those in need. Jo Cranford Hodges '96, past President of Woodward's Alumni Board, serves as the Executive Director, Key Markets and Engagement, for Atlanta-based CARE.

Boys & Girls Club

The Academy helped raise an additional $14,000 (academy-wide) for the Jesse Draper Boys & Girls club in October to help them meet their budget for last year.

The 2009 Walk-a-thon for the Jesse Draper Boys & Girls Club was on Friday, April 3. This annual event for the main campus students is help this local community club which is located on the northeast side of the school.

Annual Can-a-thon

The Academy's 2009 can-a-thon was held in November, this year's donations were :

  • Upper School: 6,174 lbs. of food and $12,487 (sponsored by the Junior Civitan club)
  • Middle School: 5,080 cans/items and $5,000
  • Lower School: 3,500 items and $4,663
  • Primary School: encourage participation, but do not count items
  • Woodward North: 1,533 lbs. of food and $805

Please note, some of the figures may include the cash donation that were used to by groceries for the drive. Also the main campus donations go to the Atlanta Community Food Bank, Family Life Ministries, and Morrow Baptist Church.

Senior Project 2010

The seniors are busy with their plans for a senior service project of building a community garden on campus.  The garden will both provide food for the local area, but will also serve as an educational tool for other divisions to teach the importance of hunger/poverty issues and sustainability.

Senior Project 2009

The class of 2009 along with the Environmental Awareness Club sold reusable War Eagle shopping bags. They wanted to to get the community to make a choice over plastic. More information about this project is on the Green Initiatives page. The proceeds form the sales will be given to the Terranova School (see below).

Senior Project 2008

The class of 2008 initiated its own class project called Project Play. They are raised money, organized and built a new playground for College Park Elementary School. Some groups they partnered with were the City of College Park, the Alumni Association, and Woodward Academy. 

Woodward and Habitat for Humanity

In the fall of 2009, the US Habitat for Humanity Campus Chapter raised $11,000 and partnered with Habitat of Atlanta and other Atlanta-area private schools to build a house for a family in need.

During the fall of 2008, the Woodward Academy Habitat for Humanity campus chapter helped to sponsor the 1001st house built by Atlanta Habitat for Humanity. The campus chapter raised $10,000 plus 25 student volunteers joined Headmaster Ron McCollum and Upper School Faculty members Jon Merrill and Chris Myers in a day of construction on the house.

This chapter primarily works with Habitat for Humanity of South Fulton on their builds.

The Terranova School

There have been a number of projects sponsored for the Terranova School in Zambia, Africa. This school is located on a coffee plantation and now offers education for children through high school. Woodward Academy has sponsored a number of projects for the school since 2004. Here are some of the highlights:

New Library Building, opened July 2007, here is a list of the donations made for the project:
Upper School: $4,700 during the Week of Understanding for books
Middle School: $7,500 for the building in December and $8,838 for books during the Week of Understanding in February
Woodward North: $3,094 during the Week of Understanding for books
Lower School: $2,500 from part of their 6th grade Market Day profits for books

  • Vision screening and eyeglasses donated to help those who needed correction
  • Supplies for their new infirmary
  • Teaching materials from the MS math department
  • Past uniforms gathered by the Parents Club after new ones were phase in fall 2005
  • Computers and networking have continued to be added and upgraded over the past few years
  • There are several Woodward Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts who are working on various projects for the Terranova School.

Please visit the Terranova Blog at: http://blog.woodward.edu/terranova/

Upper School

    • November - coordinates the annual school-wide can-a-thon for the Atlanta Community Food Bank and other local food banks (see above for details).
    • In March/April - the Key Club coordinates the annual walk-a-thon for the Jesse Draper Boys and Girls Club
    • Student tutors help at the Jesse Draper Boys and Girls Club and Hapeville Elementary School through out the year.
    • Interact Club, Sponsors two American Red Cross Blood Drives a year: For the 2009-2010 school year, the October drive brought in 79 pints. The February blood drive will be held on the 23rd of the month.
    • Has a campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity of South Fulton (see information above).
    • Senior class projects (see information above).
    • The Computer Club continues to raise money for technology at the Terranova School. They recycle cell phone batteries, printer ink cartridges and have occasional computer equipment e-cycling drives (small contribution is requested to donate/recycle equipment). Go to the Red is the New Green section of Woodward360.

Middle School

    • November - participates in the annual school-wide can-a-thon for the Atlanta Community Food Bank and other local food banks (see above for details).
    • December - participates DEFACS Christmas project where many gifts were purchased for these children.
    • In March/April - participates in the annual walk-a-thon for the Jesse Draper Boys and Girls Club also Pennies for Patients 2009, $589.40 collected
    • See the information about the Terranova School Library Project above
    • The Eagle Club organizes pennies for sponsored children and collects aluminum tab-tops for the Ronald McDonald House.

Lower School

    • May - Terranova School Vision Project, over 350 pairs of eyeglasses were collected and $2,000 in donations (more about the Terranova school above)
    • October - Jump Rope for Heart raised over $4,000
    • November - participates in the annual school-wide can-a-thon for the Atlanta Community Food Bank and other local food banks (see above for details).
    • December - collected new or gently used children’s sized coats, mittens, gloves, caps, sweaters and scarves. Other items collected as well were hygiene items such as soap, shampoo, razors, and deodorant
    • January - Pennies for Patients, Raised over $8,000 (coins are still being counted)
    • February - Show Love with Your Soles, collected over 100 pairs of shoes for the people of Haiti
    • In March/April - participates in the annual walk-a-thon for the Jesse Draper Boys and Girls Club.

Primary School

    • September - donated cell phones that had been collected to “Cell Phones for Soldiers”
    • October - collected candy to be sent to our troops coordinated by a local dentist, Dr. Joi Freemont
    • November - participates in the annual school-wide can-a-thon for the Atlanta Community Food Bank and other local food banks (see above for details).
    • December - Salvation Army Adopt-an-Angel and Boys and Girls Club gift donations,  clothes/toys drive for Christian City Children’s Home - 3rd grade class was choosen to help distribute the donated items.
    • January - Pennies for Patients, almost $7,000.
    • March/April - the annual walk-a-thon for the Jesse Draper Boys and Girls Club and St. Jude's Math-a-thon.
    • "One for the Books” - benefitted the Terranova School (see above); 125 books were donated as part of our Book Fair week, and students collected $5,000 in change to be donated to the school.
    • Collected eye glasses and donated them to the Lions Club
    • The faculty also has an option to support a variety of charities on Fridays to wear blue jeans for the day.

Woodward North

    • November - annually participates in the school-wide can-a-thon for the Atlanta Community Food Bank and other local food banks (see above for details).
    • December
      • My House - raised $3,685 (2009). Is a facility for medically fragile infants: Over the years, the faculty and students have donated toys, clothes and other necessities to the babies at My House for the past ten holiday seasons.
      • Jesse Draper Boy & Girls Club- donated one book for each child at the holiday party
      • More than 200 students donated $5.00 each to “Five for Books”, which Scholastic Books matched with a donation to Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, kids in distressed situations, and the National Center for Family Literacy
    • January - participates in Pennies for Patients, raised $12,202  (2009)
    • Math-a-thon 2009, raised $11.075.70
    • Reading Tree- 8000 books donated to Clarkdale Elementary School