Brooke Popadich ’20 and Victoria Esquibies ’20 make cards for local veterans during Community Service Day.
More than 1000 members of the Choate community gathered this past Friday to assist the Red Cross in helping those in need. For the past several years, Choate has teamed up with the Red Cross Organization to help with both big and small tasks. After packing 16,000 toiletry kits, sorting and bundling between 12,000 and 15,000 cards for local veterans, and learning about CPR, the Choate community made a difference in hundreds — if not thousands — of lives.
The planning process for Community Service Day began during the winter of 2016. The main goal for this day was finding out the best way the community could help those in need by working with the Red Cross Organization. According to Ms. Melissa Koomson, Director of Community Service, “There were a lot of logistics involved with the process. For example, when we partnered with the Red Cross, our main approach was figuring out what their needs were and how we could support them.”
In order to plan the event, there were some specific steps that needed to be executed. First, the Community Service Department had to schedule the event on a day that fit in the master calendar. Then, many faculty in charge of the event had to communicate with numerous different people to order all of the supplies that were going to be packed. After this was done, they had to facilitate the setup of the event. This included arranging the tables and supplies and explaining how the process of packing would be executed. On top of this, the planners had to inform the community as best as they could about the event so everyone would be prepared. Organizing 1100 people for one task was not the easiest job.
Students, faculty, and staff were all huge contributors to the event. “It was a positive experience to be a part of our school community doing something together to help others,” commented HPRSS Teacher Mr. James Davidson. As for students, Sam Kaplan ’19 said, “The whole day seemed very successful overall. This feeling was something I hope everyone can get after experiencing Community Service Day.” Through all the different activities of Community Service Day, this event has made a huge impact on the community as a whole.
Looking ahead to the future, there are also some thoughts about how Choate may be able to approach this event in an even more successful way. One way could be to interact with locals instead of just working in a single space. “I think that one thing we could do differently in the future is interact with the community around us,” said Donovan Lynch ’18. He continued, “Part of the idea of community service is being able to interact with the people of the community. We all come from a lot of different places but all see Wallingford as at least one of our homes. So, I think it is really important that we go around and meet people in the Wallingford community.”
Another possible approach looking into the future may be to increase the amount of supplies provided to the community to work with during this event. “If we were given more supplies, I think many people were more willing to work longer and create more bags,” said Kaplan.
The importance of the event is not only to directly help others who are suffering by giving them what they need to survive, but also to learn about the world around us and what people are unfortunate enough to go through. “I think that it’s important that we continue our efforts in community service to learn about different populations and to think about access and accessibility. The event is also there to check our own privilege – in our world, at Choate, in Wallingford, in Connecticut, and even globally,” said Ms. Koomson.
When looking at the event, the main goal was to assist the Red Cross Organization in the best way they could in order to help those suffering from disasters. So, after Community Service Day came to an end, students and faculty were able to say that they helped somebody in need. “The whole Community Service Day made me realize just how much we have to work in order to really make a difference instead of just look like we are making a difference,” commented Lynch.
