Community Outreach

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”

Muhammad Ali

The importance of giving back to one's community is instilled in Cape Henry students at all levels. Whether devoting work and time to a local nonprofit organization or collecting much-needed resources to support a community-wide initiates, our students are always willing to lend a helping hand.

The School's past Community Outreach initiatives, include, but are not limited to:

• Operation Smile: Students in all divisions assist with various projects throughout the year, including: 
  • Puppetmaking to comfort for children before and after cleft palate surgeries
  • Through a dodgeball tournament, members of the Middle School Operation Smile Club work to raise enough funds to cover two cleft palate or cleft lip surgeries.
  • Students organize collection drives to collect and assembly toiletries bags for surgery recipients and family members on mission trips.  
  • Students in the Operation Smile Club and Grade 7 Winterim students have attend the Operation Smile World Tour Day to learn more about the work of Operation Smile and the various countries that have been served by their work.
• Pajama Jams: Members of Cape Henry's Pajama Jams Club organize a schoolwide pajama collection event to benefit children in need in the Hampton Roads area.
• Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore: The CHC community comes together around the holidays to collect canned goods to help replenish the inventory at the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Easter Shore. These efforts continue with our annual Turkey Toss, where families donate frozen turkeys as part of the Foodbank's Mayflower Marathon at Thanksgiving.
• Virginia Beach SPCA: Students collect food, bedding, and toys for the animals staying at the shelter.
• American Red Cross: Older students and faculty and staff roll up their sleeves to give blood to drives held on the CHC campus.
• Pantry BOX Project: As part of initiative honoring frontline healthcare workers, students assembled care packages to be delivered to our local heroes. 
• Habitat for Humanity: Students travel to an off-site location to assist with a community build.
• Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Virginia: Students assist with tutoring and organizing food and supply drives.
• Salvation Army: During the holidays, groups of students travel to the organization's distribution and sorting center to assist with organizing donations received for the Salvation Army's holiday drives.
• Various Community Clean-Up Sites: Marshview Point, Back Bay, connected with the Greer Environmental Sciences Center at Virginia Wesleyan University, Kiptopeke Park on the Eastern Shore, the Brock Environmental Center, and the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center.   
• Schoolwide "Adopt-A -Family" Project: Families provide much needed clothing and food, as well as holiday gifts, for local families in need.
• The Union Mission Ministries: As part of an ongoing focus on community sustainability, hunger, and homelessness, Grade 8 students travel to the Union Mission to learn more about their work in serving our community, stock the food pantry, work in the thrift store, and perform other tasks as needed. Using the knowledge they have gained, students design projects to meet the various needs of the population that is served by Union Mission.
• An Achievable Dream Academy: As part of a yearlong focus on empathy and kindness, Grade 7 students visit An Achievable Dream Academy at Seatack Elementary School.  They spend time talking to their Grade 2 buddies during lunch and reading with them and performing other academic activities in the classroom.
• Food Pantry and Beach Bag Program: The Community Club organizes and implements food drives to support local schools and organizations. Of primary importance is helping with the Beach Bag Program, which provides breakfast and snack foods to low-income families who have been identified through the Virginia Beach Public School system.

• Coat, Hat, and Mittens Drive: The Community Club organizes a drive in November/December to collect new or gently used coats, hats, and mittens to pair with the families that have been selected for the Adopt-A-Family program.  Remaining coats are donated to local schools and organizations.

• Middle School Mentors Club: Middle School students partner with the Lower School to provide Middle School buddies to Lower School students. Members of the club visit Lower School classrooms weekly to help with academics, read, play games, or do arts and crafts.