Divine Mercy Academy and Monroeville Rotary Club have partnered to provide community service opportunities for kids ages 5-13.

While the EarlyAct Club at Divine Mercy Academy is the first of its kind in Monroeville schools, Rotary Club president Diane Milowicki hopes to create many more of these clubs in the coming years.

The EarlyAct Club at Divine Mercy will be split into two groups, one for kindergarten to fourth grade and one for fifth through eighth grade. The EarlyAct Club plans to meet for the first time in October and complete three age-appropriate service projects throughout the year. These projects will benefit the students’ school, community and the world.

This year marks the first year that Divine Mercy has implemented a community service requirement for all kids. The number of hours required varies depending on age.

“The synergy is wonderful because we’re coming in at the perfect time to provide an organized way for the kids to meet that service requirement,” Milowicki said.

The club will have two teacher sponsors and parent volunteers for both age groups to help with whatever organization is required to get the kids together. Lisa Rettig and Kathleen Starr are the teachers who will support the club. The parents involved in the club will be Michael Trynock, Colleen Cocchi and Tina Cuda.

“This club gives the students the opportunity to get active with service work in the community while establishing a footprint for Divine Mercy Academy,” Cuda said.

Both groups will meet twice a month after school.

“I’m going to be the connection with the rotary. I have really wanted to find a way to get something like this started with our elementary kids in the community so Divine Mercy is our first foray into the world of elementary school kids. We already have an interact club at Gateway High School, but we want to expand our involvement with the youth in the community,” Milowicki said.

The kids will be taught how to run their own meetings and come up with project ideas. The Monroeville Rotary Club plans to contribute some seed money to help obtain the necessary materials for the kids to get started.

“Once we get the kids together, we will work with them to understand the ways that they might want to help and the types of projects that they might have ideas for and we’ll guide them through that process. We’re just super excited to have this opportunity to work with the kids. We think it’s so important to instill that value of giving back and helping others at an early age and hopefully they will carry that through the rest of their lifetime,” Milowicki said.

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