By LEAH WEATHERSBY

There is a poster on Principal Maureen Blumıs wall which reads: ³A little child shall lead them.²

This seems fitting for Our Lady of the Lake School, a private Catholic school located at 3520 NE 89th St. in Wedgwood, where all students, kindergarten through eighth grade, participate in some kind of volunteer project as a class. Sixth through eighth graders are also strongly encouraged to do at least 20 hours of volunteer work on their own each year.

Blum says that volunteer projects arenıt absolutely required because the school wants to instill an ideal of community service in its students that they will carry with then throughout adulthood, not just think of as a scholastic requirement.

³This is a message we want them to have for life,² Blum said.

Despite the fact that its not a strict requirement, Blum says that about 90 percent of the approximately 90 kids enrolled in grades six through eight at Our Lady of the Lake complete the 20 hours. Most of the projects revolve around social service and can be anything from helping elderly neighbors with house donating free baby sitting to migrant workers. Class projects also vary. The schoolıs eighth graders collected 500 toys for the Atlantic Street center on Beacon Hill last Christmas. The sixth graders are ³growing² their own salmon to be released into Thornton Creek.

Our Lady of the Lake eighth grader Ashley Pinch has been volunteering at John Rogers Elementary, a public school in the Meadowbrook neighborhood, at least once a week since October, helping younger children with homework and reading. She says she is enjoying the program and will probably keep visiting Rogers for the rest of the year, even though that will exceed the 20 hours per year guideline.

³Iıve learned to help kids with things ... and explain things so they can understand,² Pinch said.

The ³Archbishop Murphy Student Service Hours,² as the program is officially known, is named after western Washingtonıs former archbishop who died in 1997. According to Blum, Archbishop Murphy was ³a model of service,² and strongly encouraged volunteerism in others.

³He brought service to our attention,² said Blum. ³It was one of the challenges he had for us.²

Blum said she and her staff started the program five years ago when she first came to Our Lady of the Lake as a way to recognize volunteer work that the students were already doing. Students who complete the program receive a certificate at the end of the year. Blum says instituting the student service wasnıt difficult.

³Itıs really easy, society it looking at how it can help others,² Blum said. ³We put out the parameters (for the program) and the parents have been very supportive.²