PARIS — Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School students who must meet community service or senior project requirements for graduation were connected Wednesday with groups that need volunteers.

“I like to help out with the kids,” said Katelyn Billings, a 10th-grade student from Norway as she signed up to volunteer with the Norway Parks & Recreation Department.

The department needs volunteers to take care of the outside ice rink on Cottage Street in the winter, and to inspect boats for aquatic plants before they enter Lake Pennesseewassee in the summer.

About 27 local nonprofit groups came to the high school to be matched with student volunteers. Among them were Norway Parks & Recreation Department, Big Brothers & Big Sisters, Norway Downtown, the Art Moves Dance Project, Safe Voices, Stephens Memorial Hospital  and Western Foothills Land Trust.

Volunteer opportunities also included holiday decorating and public green space maintenance for Norway Downtown, organizing a fundraiser for a professional show at Art Moves Dance Project and interviewing residents at the Market Square Health Care Center assisted living facility in Paris for  Stephens Memorial Hospital.

In 2009, the Oxford Hills School District Board of Directors implemented a 20-hour community service requirement for freshmen and sophomore students to do volunteer work for nonprofit groups or local governments. Next year the requirement will expand to the junior class.

The senior project is an independent undertaking by all seniors that must involve significant new learning, be independent in creation and execution and create a real-world product or service that has a positive impact on others, according to the school’s definition.

“There is a difficulty of access for the students,” Brewster Burns, the senior projects adviser and English teacher, said.

The nonprofit fair, which has been held for the past three years, links nonprofit agencies that need volunteers with students who are looking to complete 20 hours of community service or seniors who must complete their projects.

The idea for a nonprofit fair originated with a group of people in the Oxford Hills community, including Healthy Oxford Hills, who were discussing ideas of how to get more volunteer help.

ldixon@sunjournal.com