by ABBI DAVIES and and KAYLA GROHMAN
Sophomore Emma Schleifer has been volunteering for as long
as she can remember.
Schleifer volunteers for sever-
al South Bay organizations, includ-
ing health and homeless shelters.
She cooks meals for those in
need and volunteers her time to
canning and packaging food at lo-
cal churches.
Schleifer realized in elemen-
tary school that her volunteerism
could make a difference when she
petitioned for a crossing guard to
be posted at a busy intersection in
her Manhattan Beach neighbor-
hood.
“I worked with the city gov-
ernment, collected signatures, and
spoke at city council meetings to
secure a crossing guard for the cor-
ner,” Schleifer recalled.
“The crossing guard is still
there today. I realized from that
experience how good it felt to
make a difference.”
Schleifer and her parents of-
ten volunteer together, with her
family and friends being the ones
who introduced her to community
services.
“My aunt suggested volun-
teering and making meals for the
homeless shelter,” Schliefer says.
“At first, my family and I didn’t
know much about it. But there was
a shelter right near our house, and
we decided to find out more about
it. Helping out there was my firstintroduction to volunteering and
service. That was a really interest-
ing experience, and it was accessi-
ble, so it was easy to stick with it.”
Schleifer’s volunteering has
since expanded beyond homeless
shelters.She’s a member of Boy Scouts
of America, and was recently voted
into the National Honor Society
for Scouting. Schleilfer is currently
working on earning her Eagle rank.
“As a scout, community ser-service. That was a really interest-
ing experience, and it was accessi-
ble, so it was easy to stick with it.”
Schleifer’s volunteering has
since expanded beyond homeless
shelters.
vice is really important, includ-
ing supporting local city events,
environmental volunteering and
more,” she says.
“This summer, I will be volun-
teering through Scouts as a staff
member for the National YouthLeadership Training in the Inland
Empire. Through this program, I
will be teaching younger scouts
valuable leadership skills such as
communication, conflict manage-
ment and organization to betterhelp their troops.”
Schleifer’s fellow BSA Scout,
sophomore Sienna Stanley, says,
“When we were helping struggling
communities build new furniture,
Emma really helped us stay up-
beat. She is such a fun person tohave around at Scouts, and she is
such an outgoing, positive person
that she makes friends with every-
one and is really social.”
Schleifer also works with men-
tal health organizations that pro-mote wellness among teens.
She has helped develop cam-
paigns to offer healthy habits to
lessen stress and anxiety, and she
is now working on an anti-vaping
campaign for the Beach Cities
Health District.
“I want to help make BCHD
resources more accessible by work-
ing on events that are directed to-
ward the teen demographic,” she
says.
Schleifer is hoping to transfer
her learning and collaborate even-
tually with Chadwick’s Student
Wellness Council.
“I’m actually trying to connect
with SWELL right now, and I’m
talking to [faculty advisor] Rose-
marie Steinhoff. I’m trying to see
if we can create some partnerships
with other outside organizations
that I’m involved in. Bringing that
to Chadwick would be really inter-
esting, and I think that’s definitely
something I want to be involved
in.”
You can bet that Schleifer will
not stop her volunteering work
anytime soon.
The real-time impacts she sees
on communities encourage her to
keep going with service.
“I think it’s a great cause,
and I really believe in it,” she said.
“When I was little, I saw the impact service has on communities, and the impact it made on those in disadvantaged communities. And as for mental health, it is so relevant and important, especially right now, and so volunteering for these mental health organizations has become especially important to me.”
The Mainsheet 