Student Life

Community Service

Serving God and Humankind

Pro Deo et Genere Humano - “For God and Humankind” - is our school motto, and our commitment to serving others is strong.  Forty hours of community service is required for graduation, and while most students complete this requirement through Project Outreach during their ninth-grade year, many students don’t stop there. Throughout the school year, students look beyond the Holderness campus and find other ways to give back. While some of the outreach efforts occur every year and have become a commitment by the whole community, others are initiated by students and demonstrate their passion for caring for others and helping with troubling issues around the world. 

Community Service By the Numbers

2 at-risk children go to camp each summer thanks to the sale of doughnuts after assemblies on Friday mornings.

675 meals per semester are served by Holderness students during Meals for Many at the Plymouth Congregational Church on Thursday evenings.

4 students each week visit the Bridge House (a local homeless shelter) on Friday evenings and some Sundays and play with the children while their parents take a break and go out to eat with school chaplain Rich Weymouth.

9 children wake up to presents from Santa on Christmas morning at the Bridge House. The presents are picked out by students who know the children well so they can personalize each gift.

12  at-risk kids receive homework help and mentoring each day after school from Holderness students who volunteer at the Pemi-Baker Youth Center.




125 rainbow cupcakes are baked and sold during Parents’ Weekend by the Gay-Straight Alliance to raise money for the Trevor Project, a non-profit providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) young people, ages 13-24.

15 care packages are sent to members of the Holderness community serving in the armed forces overseas, complete with home-baked cookies and brownies and hand-written notes.

45  pints of blood are donated during a yearly Holderness Red Cross Blood drive with over 70 students, faculty, and staff volunteering by giving blood or baking food for the event.

265 participants on 24  teams participate in a biennial Relay for Life Event. Proceed benefit the American Cancer Society.
Holderness School
33 Chapel Lane, Holderness NH, 03245
mail P.O Box 1879 Plymouth, NH 03264-1879
phone (603) 536-1257