We Serve, the service club at Eastern Mennonite High School in Harrisonburg, Virginia, works in partnership with the Rockingham Rotary Club as an interact club. Interact clubs bring together young people ages 12-18 to develop leadership skills while discovering the power of Service Above Self.

In the hopes of expanding the school’s annual service day into more regular service opportunities for students, an 11th grade student named Abby Stapleton started We Serve during the 2018-2019 school year. Abby also hoped to broaden students’ interactions with a wider group of community organizations helping others while also providing mentorship opportunities through expanded interactions with local professionals that are often involved in service clubs. Her mom, Wendy Stapleton, was a biology teacher at Eastern Mennonite School and was the club’s first sponsor.

The club primarily serves Rockingham County and Harrisonburg, but has also done projects with surrounding communities, such as Staunton. Their projects are responsive to community needs and have included a roadside cleanup on Route 42, making meals for volunteers at the Blue Ridge Free Clinic, stuffing stockings for residents at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community (VMRC), and other efforts.

We Serve currently has more than 65 student members, between grades 9-12. The club tries to complete 1-3 projects per month. In the 2024-2025 school year, club members participated in approximately 14 events, totaling roughly 34 hours of service.

Club member Alayna Secrist recalls one event they hosted, saying, “We collaborated with Rise Against Hunger to pack 20,000 meals (doubling last year’s 10,000 meals) to send around the world. Adam Rhodes, a fellow We Serve officer, and Lucas Pou, student council president, helped to create our connection with Rise Against Hunger, and were later joined by Martha Wyse, a fellow We Serve officer, to run the event this year. Our efforts will help feed 94 children for a whole year. We had school-wide participation and were able to pack the meals within one day. We plan to continue our relationship with Rise Against Hunger and help package more meals in the future!”