For Tabor Academy students in Dartmouth, "community service" meant bringing in the harvest.

Sharing the Harvest Community Farm, a four-acre site at the Dartmouth YMCA, is preparing for winter, and on September 29, Tabor's students arrived to help out. The effort was part of Tabor's annual "Service Day" where students and faculty venture out to surrounding communities and assist local non-profits with tasks ranging from clearing nature trails to pitching in at special-needs schools and cleaning gardens and agricultural fields.

Lauren Boucher was one of several Tabor faculty members overseeing the 75 students as they helped plant potatoes, harvest tomato plants, sort and package produce, and dig up fields in the morning at the farm. Five groups of students rotated through different tasks during Tabor’s visit to the farm.

“It’s fun, dirty work and we love it,” Boucher said. “We love working for this organization because their work is so critical to helping with issues related to hunger on the South Coast.”

Guided by Farm Director Dan King, the service day was also an opportunity to learn about the YMCA’s farm, its produce and animals, and its mission of supporting local food pantries and those in need on the South Coast.

While some Tabor students pitched in in Dartmouth, other Dartmouth students were headed to Tabor's seaside campus for a day of sports competition. Tabor has recently begun hosting its annual "School Day Games" alongside the Special Olympics of Massachusetts. Students from Dartmouth participated, alongside students from various surrounding towns such as Wareham, New Bedford, Acushnet, Marion, Rochester and Mattapoisett.

Tabor students played alongside visiting athletes in several different games, including relay races, basketball and football.

“While these days certainly help strengthen our own community bond, our main goal is for our students to learn that Tabor’s mission to foster care for others and committed citizenship extends beyond our campus and beyond their years at Tabor," said faculty organizer Amelia Wright.