Chatham Hall Service Leagues

At Chatham Hall, service is more than something we do. It is part of how we understand our responsibility to one another, our community, and the world around us. For more than 50 years, Service Leagues have given Chatham Hall students a meaningful way to put that responsibility into action. Each year, students choose one of three leagues based on where they feel called to contribute. This year, we are excited to share the new names of our leagues (School Service League, Civic Service League, and Oak and Altar Service League) and that students will earn service hours each semester.

During our morning chapel, the theme “We Rise by Lifting Others” invited students to consider how their time, talents, and choices can make a difference. As students gathered to learn about the three leagues, they were encouraged to think not only about where they want to serve, but about what kind of impact they want to make.

The School Service League focuses on making Chatham Hall a better, more fulfilling place for everyone. Students help with campus events, weekend activities, and projects that improve the student experience, such as opening our own campus thrift store this year. For League President Bella D. ’27, the experience is also about connection. She joined the league as a freshman and quickly discovered that getting involved in weekend activities was one of the best ways to get to know the people around her.

“Every activity is an opportunity for us to get to know each other better,” she shared.

Now, as president, Bella hopes to create even more opportunities for students to share their ideas, get involved, and shape their experience at Chatham Hall.

The Civic Service League extends Chatham Hall’s reach beyond campus and into the surrounding communities. Students volunteer at local schools, serve community meals, support Historic Chatham, participate in food and clothing drives, and engage in service opportunities in Danville. For League President Addy A. ’27, civic service has been a way to better know our neighbors and to make a difference in the lives of those who live in close proximity to our school.  

One of her favorite experiences was volunteering at a Restore in Danville, where she and her classmates sorted donated clothing. The work was meaningful, but so was the experience of laughing and working alongside friends while doing something good for their community.

That is one of the gifts of service: it creates opportunities to meet new people, understand our neighbors, and discover that even small acts of contribution can have a lasting impact.

The Oak and Altar Service League takes a different approach to service by caring for the spaces that help our community pause, reflect, and reconnect. League President Ella Isacksen describes Chatham Hall as a busy place, where students move constantly between classes, sports, activities, homework, and the many demands of a residential school experience. For her, service can also mean stewarding the sacred spaces on campus that are living sanctuaries.

Students in Oak and Altar will help care for spaces including the Chapel, multi-faith room, trails, and arboretum. They will also contribute to Chapel planning and special programs that reflect the diversity of the Chatham Hall community. One project Ella is particularly excited about is creating a labyrinth on campus, offering students a quiet place to walk, think, and reflect.

For Ella, caring for these spaces is ultimately about caring for the people who use them. “It’s more than maintaining physical spaces,” she shared. “It is about helping create moments of peace within a very busy community and making sure those spaces are here for all of us when we need them.”

While the three Service Leagues serve different parts of the community, they share a common purpose: to encourage students to recognize what is needed around them and find ways to contribute. Service asks us to look beyond ourselves. It invites us to notice, to listen, to step forward, and to use our time and talents for the greater good. As students begin another year of service at Chatham Hall, they are reminded that meaningful change does not always begin with a grand gesture. Sometimes, it begins simply by asking: If not us, then who? If not now, then when? At Chatham Hall, we believe that when we serve one another, we all thrive.