It seemed Oct. 15 was the perfect day for members of the Boothbay Region High School Class of 2018 to begin their community service graduation requirement.

Approximately 60 freshmen spent four hours Wednesday morning lending a helpful hand to several organizations. The students are required to perform five hours of community service per year.

With the sophomore and junior classes taking Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Tests (PSAT) and seniors visiting colleges last Wednesday, school officials decided it was a good day to find a project for the freshman.

“Students are doing everything from stacking wood for the Woodchucks to decorating the Railway Village for Halloween,” said freshmen homeroom teacher Ben Powell.

The freshmen assisted the Woodchucks, Railway Village, Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor, Rittall Farms and Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens during the required community service time.

Eleven of Powell’s students arrived at the Boothbay Public Works woodlot prepared to stack wood for the Woodchucks.

Each year, the Woodchucks split and deliver wood for needy families. Last year, the Woodchucks fell behind stacking wood. This created problems for the all-volunteer senior citizen woodsmen organization delivering wood last winter. The unstacked wood was snow covered and frozen. This created problems for both the Woodchucks and those who received the firewood.

“It was hard to load onto the trucks because it was stuck to the pile,” said Woodchuck Bill Smith. “And when it is was delivered, it was hard to burn. After it thawed it became wet.”

This year, the Woodchucks have a donated shelter to protect the wood. They have cut about 12 cords of wood and expect to store eight under the shelter. Smith said the students’ community service is going to make the Woodchucks’ operation run smoother this winter.

“I got a call from the school saying that students are available for community service,” Smith said. “I said ‘great’ sending them down to the woodlot and they can stack wood. That’ll be a big help to us.”

This is the first year for the Boothbay Region High School community service graduation requirement, which came about through a student initiative.

A coalition of students formed the ECO Club last year to organize more student community service programs. This led the club to propose making community service a graduation requirement.

The ECO Club researched other Maine high school  community service graduation requirements and presented their findings to the school board.

The club’s power point presentation last spring persuaded the board to adopt community service as a graduation requirement.

“This was totally a student-initiated project,” said Boothbay Region High School guidance director Jennifer Burns. “They did all the work. They did research and presented their finding to the school board. And the board approved their proposal. This is something they did totally on their own.”

Burns said the ECO Club proposed the initiative because they thought high school students should become more involved in community projects.