Non-Sibi Day
Izzy Torio ’21: MSPCA
This experience was a really cool opportunity to be able to go outside of [Andover] and see how a non-profit organization runs and be able to help out on the MSPCA grounds and stable area and with all the animals. The amount of work that you have to put into doing the kinds of things that we did really stuck out to me and just, in general, the work put into running MSPCA. It was a great way to get out of the “[Andover] Bubble” and see a lot of the things that people do in the world for others and to be able to participate in that.
Students remove weeds in the Community Garden.
Melanie Cheung ’20: Rise Against Hunger
We helped to pack meals for Rise Against Hunger, which is an international organization that works to fight hunger. These meals would be shipped to one of the countries that they operate in. This really showed me how if we can come together collectively and just put a little time into doing stuff like this, we can accomplish a lot. We packed almost 16,000 meals in probably an hour and a half, so just having that impact. Also, I think it was really cute to see how most people were super eager to be doing this work and to be packing the meals.
Waste Audit sorted trash from dumpsters around campus.
Diego Winsor ’22: Community Giving Tree
We went to Dollar Tree, and we picked up Mother’s Day packages, so it was shampoo, lotion, conditioner, and stuff like that, and we all sorted them and counted them and stacked them. And then we went and make little bags of toys and stuff for the Mother’s Day thing too. I think it was important, especially because I live in the area, and they were giving the goods to mothers in the northeastern Massachusetts area, so I thought that was really nice.
Nourishing the North Shore worked at vegetable gardens.
Jack Curtin ’19: Faces of Homelessness
We had a panel of people who in the past had experienced homelessness, and they talked about their experience and broke down the stigmas and stereotypes surrounding homelessness. I thought it was really great. It brought to light a lot of parts of homelessness that I had not thought about before, like how it’s not a universal experience, it’s very individual and for each person. I feel as if it taught everyone a lot.
The gardens hope to provide equal access to good produce.
