SGA Service Kick Off-Cookies for Nurses

Our Upper School Stars SGA launched their year of service with a cookie drive for the nurses at St. Francis Hospital. They received so many cookie donations from Upper School students-enough for almost 2,500 bags-that they were able to send cookies to four additional hospitals: Methodist South, Methodist North, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and Regional One!

The cookie project was spearheaded by our SGA Commissioners of Service, Meredith Thompson, Class of ‘23 and Caroline Baker, Class of ‘22. When asked what inspired them to kick off the year with a cookie drive, they replied, “We wanted to do something for the nurses and doctors who are extremely overworked due to the pandemic. We thought the cookies would be a simple idea and something that everyone would enjoy receiving.”

Meredith and Caroline were both thrilled with the overwhelming response from the students. “Everyone was really excited to give back to essential workers in our area. Also, baking cookies is a fun activity, and the fact that it was an act of service made the students want to participate even more!”

Making this project particularly meaningful is the fact that the drive allowed our current students to connect with some SAA alumnae. Amy Rice ('00) and Caroline Smith ('15), both nurses, were proud to share in this sweet surprise from their alma mater! Amy, a nurse at Methodist South sent a thank you out to the SGA sharing, “What a sweet surprise! Hundreds of homemade cookies! Thank you for thinking of us and GO STARS!”

Meredith and Caroline are using the momentum from this service project as they move forward into other projects that are in the works. “We are planning on doing some projects related to different holidays. For example, cleaning cemeteries/gravestones for Halloween, making Friendsgiving bags for Thanksgiving, bellringing for Christmas, making cards for Valentine's, etc. Along with these holiday services, we will be doing some other drives over the year for charities and other organizations in our area that need items.” 

We are excited about the passion Meredith and Caroline are bringing to their roles, ensuring that we stay faithful to the Dominican Pillar of Service. When asked why they ran for this office, they replied, “We wanted the opportunity to serve both our school and the Memphis community. We were super excited to be the ones in charge of coming up with service projects that will get students involved in the community and help forge strong bonds.”