Students typically view summer as a much-needed respite from their demanding schoolwork, but 150 young women from Point Loma and Mission Hills spent their vacations tutoring children, cooking meals and building houses.
These 7th- through 12th-grade girls are partnering with their mothers to fund-raise for and volunteer at local charities through the Mothers and Daughters Club Assisting Philanthropies (MADCAPS), a service organization established in San Diego in 1960.
This summer, 7th-graders served meals at St. Vincent de Paul Village, 8th-graders worked with about 60 underprivileged preschool children at Point Loma’s Head Start program and 9th-graders went sailing and camping with disabled San Diegans through the city’s Therapeutic Recreation Services Summer Camp.
The MADCAPS dedicated their summer months to many other local organizations, including the San Diego Historical Society, Point Loma Public Library, Correia Summer School and CRASH Options for Recovery. Capping off the summer, MADCAPS in their senior year of high school also helped construct homes for Habitat for Humanity.
According to vice president Catherine Aria, MADCAPS assigns girls at each grade level a different area of the community to focus on, striving to be both age and community appropriate. Accordingly, 7th-graders “” the youngest participants “” perform community service with their mothers.
Eighth-graders interact with children, 9th-graders work with the disabled, and 10th-graders learn about drug and substance abuse.
“It’s a six-year commitment,” explained Alisa Joyce Barba, MADCAPS publicity chair. By the time the girls reach their senior year of high school, “They help with Habitat for Humanity, which is a much more sophisticated thing … You can’t have 7th-graders climbing on top of houses.”
To Barba, that six-year-long progression is the hallmark of the MADCAPS program.
“It’s absolutely wonderful, because these girls come in at 7th grade and they’re not particularly sure of themselves, but by the time they graduate in 12th grade, hopefully they’ve learned the value of giving back to society,” Barba said. “We are training them to be philanthropic givers for the rest of their lives.”
To follow up on the projects they began during the summer, MADCAPS members will also be collaborating on several projects this fall, including staffing a station at the breast cancer 3-day walk event and hosting a Halloween carnival at the Children’s Hospital.
Additionally, the 8th graders who played and read with children at Head Start this summer will return to host a Halloween party for them in October.
For more information, call (619) 226 2522.