Community Service has always been a priority at Solebury School. From its opening days to the present, students, faculty, and staff have given their time and skills to help build and enrich communities on and off campus.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Solebury students, teachers, and parents took part in various projects to serve our surrounding community. Activities included:
- No sew blanket making for Doylestown Hospital Cancer Alliance to patients undergoing chemotherapy.
- Knitting and crocheting squares for donation to Warm Up America.
- Jewelry making to be sold as a fundraiser (to be determined), but will support a charity that shares MLK’s aspirations for social justice.
“Service is important to me because it is a way of upholding your community and creating important connections with those around you,” shared Nomah Elliot ’23, Co-President of Solebury Service Society. “My favorite part of the day was sitting and knitting squares for the organization Warm Up America with my friends.”
When asked what this day means to her, Community Service Director Sarah May shared, “I love this day because we always get such an enthusiastic and dedicated group of volunteers. We get so much accomplished and have fun doing it. It feels good to do good!” Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service is just one of many efforts from the Solebury Community Service Club to better their school and the community around them.
“Service Society is a very devoted and motivated group this year,” shared Sarah. “Initiatives the members are very interested in include raising awareness and funds around the issue of period poverty, as well advocating for accessibility of feminine hygiene products on our very own campus. We are hoping to send regular volunteers to The Spot in Philadelphia.”
Other initiatives the Solebury Service Society is leading the charge on this year include working to educate and fundraise around the issue of refugee rights and support, refugee initiatives, and a project to start regularly sending volunteers to an organization in Doylestown that provides services for autistic kids.
In addition to the volunteer activities, students in our Social Justice Concentration hosted a documentary screening about the experience of black youth in America, followed by a group discussion of the documentary.
When looking for a documentary screening for Martin Luther King Day, it was the goal of Alex Tes ’24 and Allison Tes ’24 to find something that spoke to the Black experience in America from a Black perspective. They chose the documentary, Between the World and Me, based on a book by Ta-Nehisi Coates. In this documentary, Coates retells his realities as a Black man in America in hopes of preparing his son for the struggles he will face. In doing so, this documentary portrays how racism has affected the Black community for generations.
“We appreciate how Between the World and Me addressed the complexity of the American Dream. More specifically, Coates depicts “the Dream'' as two-sided with those who work to uphold the Dream—the suburban house with the white picket fence—and those who are left on the outside, shared Alex and Allison. “Based on this, Coates says that dismantling racism works to invalidate the Dream. This documentary has successfully allowed other non-Black people to further educate themselves and to understand this perspective by giving a glimpse into the injustices that Black people encounter daily.”