Living Cui Servire on Community Day of Service

Groton alumni and parents joined the spring Community Day of Service once again this year, spreading the school ethos of service and engagement from coast to coast.

 

As students and faculty dispersed throughout the area on Saturday, May 20, Groton's extended family took on projects in Boston, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and right on campus.

 

Students weeded and mulched, sorted furniture, cleaned, played music, and planted tomato plants—860 of them. In the town of Groton, they did craft activities with children at Seven Hills Pediatric Center, entertained at Nashoba Park Assisted Living and RiverCourt Residences, gardened at Groton Commons, beautified a local playground, cleared trails, and reinforced books for the Kigali Reading Center in Rwanda.

In nearby cities and towns, students and faculty volunteered at the Lowell Humane Society and Boston’s Epiphany School, founded by Groton alumnus John Finley ’88. They participated in the Cystic Fibrosis Walk in Andover; helped with an open house at the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard; organized items for families in need at Household Goods Recycling in Acton and the Wish Project in Lowell; and helped with spring clean-ups at the Acton Arboretum, the Community Harvest Garden in North Grafton, the Healing Garden in Harvard, and the Roudenbush Community Center in Westford.

 

Eighty-five alumni and parents across the country joined in Groton’s Community Day of Service. They worked alongside Groton students at the Epiphany School, on Groton’s trails, and on the books for Rwanda. Outside the Boston area, they hosted a community field day for A Wider Circle in Washington, D.C.; cleaned the beach at Golden Gate National Park in San Francisco; and set up a new library at the Eagle Academy for Young Men of Harlem in New York City. 

 

Lakia Washington '98, who works at the Eagle Academy, was touched by the progress made during this single day of service. “We were able to open over thirty boxes and inventory over one hundred books. I am so grateful for all the hard work everyone put in,” she said, crediting Groton for preparing her to focus on public education. "It is what I was called to do and has taught me the true meaning of cui servire est regnare,” she added. The school's motto, adopted in about 1900, emphasizes the importance of service.