OPRF is continuing to demonstrate one of their core values as engaged community members as they challenge all Huskies, current and former, to log 150,000 hours of community service.
As of this month, 45,000 hours, 30% of the goal, have been logged.
“It is a huge number of hours but we are still not at that number we are aiming for,” said Karin Sullivan, executive director of communications at OPRF.
There have been 450 entries logged, which Sullivan said averages to 99 hours a person. However, Sullivan said they are confident more people are out in their communities lending a helping hand.
“We know that 150,000 hours are being done by our community, our main challenge is getting people to log them,” Sullivan said.
And of course, community service can take various forms.
From helping at a local nonprofit to even serving on the board of a local taxing body.
“Their service as board members count,” said Sullivan. “We know the hours are being done, we are confident in that. But we want a record of it.”
And in those records, OPRF is able to have a visual of how far the OPRF high school community reaches.
Out in Los Angeles, Lisa Strawn, class of ‘77, is continuing to live a life of service as she volunteers at her church and advocates for cancer patients through Relay for Life, a fundraiser walk for the American Cancer Society.
Strawn lost her dad, grandmother, and sister to cancer and she herself was diagnosed in 2023.
“I have been in many relays because I do know that it can run in the family,” Strawn said. “I’d like to see more solutions, more stories like myself. I am recovering, I am in remission. I get to be one of the lucky survivors and after seeing so many family members not become survivors, I’d like to see the table start to turn.”
While her life took her to California, Straw still recalls her days in Oak Park and at OPRF as some of the best days of her life.
“I have seen many high schools but that was the best,” Strawn said. “There is something about that high school. I have never seen a school that great and every time I go back to Illinois to visit, I go by the school, I drive around the school.”
For Molly Kovats, a 2011 graduate from OPRF, her spirit for community service extends from Oak Park all the way to Colombia, where Kovats volunteers with a nonprofit organization that teaches English to children. When she is in Oak Park, Kovats has also been involved in community service and recently also volunteered to aid in the migrant crisis.
Volunteering is a way for Kovats to engage with the community, values her Catholic family instilled in through their community service.
“I think when you have a lot of privilege, it seems like the right thing to equal it out by helping people who weren’t lucky enough to be born into that privilege,” Kovats said.
With many graduates of OPRF logging in their volunteer hours to help the school reach their goal, Sullivan said those Huskie values run deep.
“It’s fantastic but I’ll be honest, it is not surprising,” Sullivan said. “We know how much graduates love their alma mater. People really care deeply about this high school. We know that people are really attached to OPRF.”
Not many people keep a deep attachment to their high school, which Sullivan said speaks to Oak Park as a whole.
“It is fantastic. It speaks to what a great education and experience they had here,” Sullivan said. “But also, the community in general. People have such a fondness for Oak Park and River Forest beyond the walls of the high school.”
Sullivan said that service hours do not have to benefit the high school directly in order to be logged. Any community service that anyone is doing for any organization counts, said Sullivan.
Anyone who has any ties to OPRF is encouraged to participate and log their hours of service.
“Anyone locally who is doing service work, even if they never had a child here, even if they didn’t go here,” Sullivan said. “They are still a part of our school community. Their taxes are supporting our community, if they are a renter…anyone local in Oak Park and River Forest we encourage to complete the form.”
While the school celebrates the big milestone, part of that celebration should go beyond just parties, said Sullivan.
“We wanted to show the effect that being a Huskie has on the world,” said Sullivan. “It is huge and we really want that to be a cornerstone of our celebration. It shows this high school has an impact on the world. And it is a big one.” Service hours can be logged at www.oprfhs.org/about/150th-anniversary.
