A cheer began to rise from the assembled Tabor Academy students. Lined up in two straight lines, they offered high-fives and hugs to the Special Olympics students who now walked between them, medals glinting at their necks.

Whether they were hosting the Special Olympics, maintaining nature trails, helping to bring in the harvest or creating gift bags for children affected by recent hurricanes, Tabor Academy's students set out to make the South Coast just a bit brighter on Friday.

The school held its annual Fall Service Day on September 29. Half of the students hosted the School Day Games (which culminated in what could be referred to as a 'gauntlet of cheer') alongside Special Olympics MA.

The School Day Games were organized by Tabor Special Olympics, a student-run group. The initial School Day Games were held the previous spring. This fall's event featured Special Olympics participants from across the South Coast, including teams from Dartmouth, Wareham, New Bedford and the tri-town.

Tabor students played alongside visiting athletes in several different games, including relay races, basketball and football.

While the Special Olympics games reigned on Tabor's campus, other Tabor faculty and students loaded onto buses to clear biking and walking trails or assist in cleanup in Marion, Rochester, Wareham Acushnet and Dartmouth. Several students stopped in at the Shoolman Preserve in Rochester to tidy up the hiking area's newly expanded parking lot and clean up the trails, left unkempt after recent winds downed many sticks and branches.

Students also pitched in to help clean up at different tracts under the purview of the Sippican Lands Trust, as well as Tabor Academy's Oyster Farm. In Wareham, they "winterized" the Wareham Free Library's garden, pulling out the annual summer plants and cleaning the area before winter sets in.

Other students volunteered their time at the Schwartz Center in Dartmouth, a school for special needs students.

“While these days certainly help strengthen our own community bond, our main goal is for our students to learn that Tabor’s mission to foster care for others and committed citizenship extends beyond our campus and beyond their years at Tabor," said faculty organizer Amelia Wright.