Steamboat Springs — Do you think it’s important to contribute to the community?

“Community service is great. It benefits nonprofit organizations a great deal. This means not only the generous people who give their time feel better about themselves and what they have done, but we all benefit. This also reflects our town as a whole.”

– Sam Samlouski, 14

“I think community service is a good thing because it keeps people working together and becoming a local part of the community. I don’t think it should be required to do a certain amount of time because it starts to be like chores or something they need to do. If people want to become a better local to the community, they will do it.”

-Logan Banning, 13

“For one thing, if no one volunteered, the government would have to give nonprofit organizations more money which you would have to pay for in taxes later, so a little work now equals a little more money later. : Community service should not be mandatory because if it was mandatory, no one would do good work.”

– Nathan Parks, 13

“Community service is a good thing because it can help with things that could not have been paid for and would not have been possible otherwise. : I don’t think community service should be mandatory, because when you have to do it, you are taught to not want to do it.”

– Tanner Morrison, 13

“Community service is always a good thing to do. Not only are you helping the organization of people you’re working for, you’re making life easier and less stressful. Though community service is good, I think that in some cases it isn’t. Like in our school, we need eight hours of community service to pass eighth grade. : Sometimes if you are forced to do hours, it takes the good or the service out of it. It turns from a kind act to a chore.”

– Sam Ogden, 13