Day of Service: "To Reflect on Our Place in This World"

This spring’s Community Day of Service—Saturday, May 12—reached locally and globally while shedding new light upon four organizations where Groton students have the opportunity to engage throughout the year.

Instead of the usual Day of Service, which sends the Groton community to projects throughout the area, Saturday’s work reached far but stayed on campus. “The format of today’s programming is different from what we’ve done in past years,” said Director of Community Engagement and English teacher Jonathan Freeman-Coppadge. “We begin today in conversation with four community leaders with whom our school has developed long, rewarding relationships.”
 
At a morning panel discussion, the community learned about the programs—and the passionate leaders—at the Syrian Refugee Mission of New England, the Groton Senior Center, the Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry, and Our Father’s House, which provides food and shelter for the homeless.
 
Neisha Kifer of Our Father’s House described “what homelessness looks like in our immediate area.” Our Father’s House often serves educated people, some with advanced degrees who once had nice homes, Ms. Kifer said, adding that anyone can be “one decision, one paycheck, one substance abuse problem away from homelessness.” She described traveling to people who live under bridges and by railroad tracks to hand out “go-kits” with basic necessities. “Most folks out in the streets are not ready to come into an emergency shelter,” she explained.
 
Patricia Stern, executive director of the Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry, told stories that also demonstrated just how vulnerable anyone can be to hunger and need. She described a seriously injured vet with no family whose PTSD keeps him from taking care of himself. She also told the story of a food pantry patron who once had a family and a good job, but after divorce and job loss can’t find employment.
 
Also on the panel was Kathy Shelp, director at Groton’s Senior Center, who explained the work of the Council of Aging and urged her young listeners to be patient with older people. “Remember,” she said, “they were once you.”

The fourth presenter, Pam Morss, director of the Syrian Refugee Mission of New England, described the needs of refugees and the difference Groton students would make later that morning by packing backpacks with art supplies for refugee children (whose simple drawings, she said, often depict planes dropping bombs).
 
Headmaster Temba Maqubela concluded the morning presentation by explaining how much organizations like these helped him and his family when he was a refugee in Africa and newly arrived in the U.S. “Ordinary people have done extraordinary things for us,” he said. “… Remember that it’s ordinary people who do extraordinary things for you as well.”
 
After the panel discussion, while some students worked on the backpacks for Syrian refugees, others reinforced the bindings of books for the Kigali Reading Center in Rwanda and packed art supplies for Project Sunshine, which serves pediatric patients. Students also filled care packages for members of the military on active duty and wrote them letters. In Groton’s Dining Hall, students helped prepare food for the Groton Community Dinner, while in the library, experienced and novice knitters created squares that will become baby quilts for Binky Patrol.
 
Outdoors, students picked up litter on Farmers Row, cleared trails, tended the campus garden, held a “free” car wash (with donations for charity), and ran a 5K for ALS awareness. Campus musicians performed for students from the Epiphany School in Boston (a longtime Groton School partner), and other students did art projects and played games with the Epiphany children. Some Groton parents participated in the Day of Service as well; they donated supplies and helped with the Saturday event on campus, while several kicked off the effort earlier this week by volunteering at the New York Common Pantry in Manhattan. 
 
Groton's Community Day of Service, once again, opened eyes and hearts. “It is not often that we have a chance to take a break from our hectic and demanding lives to reflect on our place in this world—who we are and who we want to be in relationship with those living around us,” said Mr. Freeman-Coppadge, adding that the day was meant as “a chance to pause, reflect, and recognize the interdependent world we occupy.

"It is not meant to be a one-and-done fulfillment of some kind of service requirement. It’s an opportunity to practice balance between self and other, and to think about how we can weave that kind of balance into our everyday lives.”
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