On Friday February 23, the St. George’s Senior School participated in its monthly Friday Casual Day to support a charity. The main past beneficiary in the past has been Backpack Buddies, an organization that helps provide children with food over the weekend while not on school nutrition programs.

This month, the funds from the casual day went to Project Somos, an organization in Guatemala that helps “moms and children have a safe home”. This also provides a connection for when a group of boys from St. George’s will be going to Project Somos at Spring Break to volunteer their time to help the charity.

On Friday, many boys came to school in casual wear. When they walked in the school, I asked them a couple questions about donating to charities and why they donate. The first question that I asked was: Do you like having casual days? The overwhelming majority of the responses were a resounding yes, but a few interesting responses also came about. One boy said “I like how we have casual day. When we are in our uniforms, we all look the same, but when we wear casual, we are able to see the diversity that is within the school. We normally don’t see this, and it’s nice.”

The next question that was asked was: Do you donate the same amount for all of the casual days, or do you donate a different amount depending on the charity? There were very mixed responses on this question, with boys picking both sides. A grade 10 student told me “Casual day is a great opportunity to support different charities. I always donate the same amount to all the groups because I know that the money I donate will go to a good cause even if I do not know much about them.” Other boys did more thorough research and donated more or less to the charities that they felt more or less connected to.

The monthly casual day is a great way for the school to give back to the community. Many boys saw it as an opportunity to show the school’s diversity, while others saw it as an opportunity to support different charities. Either way, the Senior School casual day connects the school in more ways than one.