Twenty-one students and staff went on an overnight retreat to Milwaukee this past weekend to learn how they can make a difference in impoverished communities.

The group worked with City on a Hill, Inc., an organization that provides services for children, adults and families to break the poverty cycle and improve communities.

“The purpose of this service trip was to learn about poverty and how we can make a difference in our communities while serving and doing work for others,” said Ms. Ciera Gerl, Student Services Assistant at NDA and one of the trip’s chaperones.

Students learned about the organization and arranged some games for their guests on Friday night. A prayer group was held on Saturday morning to help with their health outreach event.

“Some students helped the guests with registration, organizing projects and directing them to where they needed to go within the event,” explained Gerl.

After completing organizational projects for the City on a Hill staff, they held a group reflection and attended mass at the Basilica of St. Josaphat. The group left on Friday after school and came back Saturday night.

“I think the appeal of getting to go on an overnight trip with friends is a factor in kids being interested in this trip. However, all of our students were very hard working and genuinely wanted to be helpful to the City on a Hill staff and their guests. Many of them also wanted to learn about and interact with people that were different from themselves,” said Gerl.

Overall, she said the trip was impactful for the students. They realized “how lucky they are to have great families and not be living in poverty.” Students also got to experience firsthand the impact their service had on the guests.

“Something that might seem simple to us might mean the whole world to someone else,” she said.

NDA has done this service trip to Milwaukee for the past two years, but they have been doing a sophomore service trip for many more. A group of sophomores used to go on a similar trip to Chicago prior to going to Milwaukee.

Students and staff who attended with Gerl were Mr. Greg Geiser, Mrs. Brenda Rentmeester, Kassandra Cendejas, Maya Christensen, Emma Ciak, Isabel Derouin, Max Elfner, Irene Ertman, Mariana Gonzalez, Zuleyma Guzman, Spencer Messman, Lilliana Poehlmann, Ciaran Ryan, Anya Tadych, Evie Tadych, Arianna Torres, Jennifer Mercado, Adin Wasilkoff, Madeline Wied and Tyler Schwarten.