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Serving with Purpose: Return to the Community Day 2025
Serving with Purpose: Return to the Community Day 2025
Each year, as Delaware celebrates the state’s historic Return Day, Delmarva Christian High School observes its own tradition — Return to the Community Day, a schoolwide day of service that sends students and staff out to serve others in the name of Christ. Although Return Day itself falls only on election years, Delmarva Christian’s “Return to the Community Day” is held annually, reminding students the importance of service. On this special day, every high school student and staff member steps out of the classroom and into the community to love, serve, and shine the light of Jesus Christ in tangible ways.
This year, students completed more than 100 unique service projects across Sussex County and beyond. Their acts of service ranged from simple, everyday kindness to large-scale community efforts:
- Helping neighbors and the elderly: Students raked leaves, built wheelchair ramps, detailed cars, cleaned garages, and decorated homes for seniors across the county.
- Serving local churches and ministries: Dozens volunteered at area churches — cleaning nurseries, preparing classrooms, organizing storage, and helping with events like Friendsgiving and Operation Christmas Child.
- Supporting local organizations: Students served at the Georgetown SPCA, Nanticoke Senior Center, Catholic Charities, Cheer, Thrifty Creations, and the Delmarva Discovery Museum — organizing donations, caring for animals, cleaning facilities, and serving meals.
- Caring for creation: Teams gathered at beaches, parks, and roadsides to collect trash and clean public spaces, from Rehoboth and Bethany Beach to back roads in Greenwood and Milford.
- Encouraging first responders and workers: Some students baked cookies and delivered them to local fire departments and police stations, while others supported local businesses by volunteering at delis, farms, and shops.
- Giving through creativity: Students made crafts and notes for nursing home residents, crocheted hats for Bayhealth Hospital, and built props for church Christmas programs.
Faculty joined in as well with high school staff baked and packaged goods for over 200 people, delivering them to more than ten local businesses and families where they also prayed together.
Whether picking up trash on the boardwalk, assisting teachers at local preschools, or sitting with a grandparent who simply needed company, every act of service reflected Delmarva Christian’s mission: to prepare students spiritually, academically, and physically to know and do God’s will.
Through “Return to the Community Day,” Delmarva Christian students are reminded that serving others isn’t just a day on the calendar, it’s a way of life.
