In Support of the Common Good
F
ROM fund-raising efforts to volunteer work for local organizations, the many service-related activities organized this fall by student groups, teams, and school departments reflected the Loomis community’s widespread commitment to the common good. Here’s a sampling from the fall: A “Color Run” orchestrated by the student-led Pelican Service Organization raised $1,700 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. On a sunny afternoon, participants paid to traverse a one-mile course on campus while volunteers sprayed them with colorful (non-toxic) paint. The freshman class volunteered at schools, libraries, food banks, senior centers, animal shelters, and public parks in the area as part of the school’s annual Freshman Service Day. Students in the school’s Community Service program partnered with Caring Connection, the town of Windsor’s day health center for adults who need assistance with daily activities or are socially isolated. During weekly visits to the center, the students and supervising faculty engaged
A group of freshmen and Community Service Coordinator Roseanne Lombardo gather before their Freshman Service Day project. Pictured: Maya Guyton, Lucas Scheuer, James Wang, Chris Lucero, Marleigh Giliberto, Melissa Scanlon, Carter Hutchinson, Roseanne, Navreet Kaur, Stacy Park, Kaitlin Donovan, and Willis Clayton-Stankowski. Photo: Christine Coyle
with the mostly elderly clients in craft projects, food preparation, and musical performances. The service program also welcomed many of the clients to the Island for a student recital in the Hubbard Performance Hall in November. The girls field hockey and volleyball teams took to the field and gym dressed in creative pink attire during October games in support of breast cancer research and awareness while their friends, family, and community members cheered their efforts and contributed to the cause. The varsity boys soccer team raised more than $1,000 in a benefit game for Nothing But Nets, a United Nations Foundation that provides mosquito netting to people in Africa at risk for malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. The foundation's director is former varsity soccer player Chris "Crick" Helfrich ’99.
More than three dozen members of the boys and girls cross country teams and their coaches participated in the Run for the Fallen in Middletown, Connecticut, paying tribute to the 65 Connecticut residents who died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Jennifer McCandless’s Ceramics II class participated in the Empty Bowls Project, an international grassroots awareness and fundraising effort to fight hunger. The students created and glazed ceramic bowls then donated them to a local Empty Bowls event that supported Foodshare, a regional food bank. Thirty-two pints of blood were donated to the American Red Cross through a campus blood drive organized by the Student Council. Each pint of donated blood could save up to three lives.
A Park? A Piazza? It’s Rock Quad!
R
OCKEFELLER Quadrangle, or “Rock Quad,” as many students call it, has a new, park-like feel. The quad located between Katharine Brush Library, the Wilbur Dining Hall, and the Clark Center for Science & Mathematics received a face lift early this fall, including new seating areas with Adirondack-style chairs and tables, stone walkways, more natural light, and new shrubs and plantings. Overgrown trees and shrubs were removed to open up the space and let in more sunlight, and the quad’s asphalt walkways were replaced by a natural stone surface. The welcoming environs and the Adirondack chairs and tables outside the library and throughout the quad prompt frequent use by students relaxing, socializing, and studying, even on mild November days.
Photo: Patricia Cousins
20 |