Supper for Six

This winter, our Community Service Council and our Food and Gardens Council gathered donations from our community for the United Way of Franklin County’s Supper for Six food drive, which collects and assembles grocery bags with everything a family needs to make dinner––and sometimes breakfast and lunch––for a family of six.

Here’s what Community Service Council member and senior Sarah ’21 had to say about our community’s contribution to this project: “It is difficult for me to find the right words to express how proud I am to be part of this community. This year’s Supper For Six project was challenging, and unique, because of the pandemic. But with the help of all you wonderful Aardvarks, we were able to make a donation of 20 FULL BAGS of meals to the United Way of Franklin County. Even if you thought your donation was ‘just a little thing I could give’, you made it possible for some families to be provided food during these troubling times. So I would like to say a huge thank you to everybody who participated. Let’s keep the Academy spirit going!!”

 

Antiracism Training Day

On Wednesday, January 20th, we suspended our typical class schedule to take part in a community-wide Antiracism Training Day brought to us by our Social Justice Council and funded in part by Dean’s Beans coffee fundraiser (also organized by the Social Justice Council). The full day of events included a virtual privilege walk, a panel entitled “Intersections of Racism and the Criminal Legal System,” and a series of workshops, a comprehensive list of which is included below. Visitors from local peer schools including Lander Grinspoon Academy, The Center School, Montessori School of Northampton, The Hartsbrook School, and Stoneleigh-Burnham School joined our students, faculty, and staff for some of the day’s events.

Workshop offerings included the following: 

• Centering Blackness in a Multi-racial Movement (with Shela Linton)
• Reflections on White Racial Identity (with Rachel Sumner ’04)
• What does “Defund the Police” and “Abolition” mean? 101 Intro (with Ya-Ping Douglass)
• Policing Abolition 102 (with Ya-Ping Douglass)
• BIPOC Land Ownership and Sovereignty (with Maggie Lamps)
• Everyday Experiences with Racism in This Area (with Penny Ricketts)
• Anti-Semitism in These Times (with Rabbi Riqi Kosovske P23)
• Race: Liberation and Joy (Dr. J (Jamila Lyiscott))
• Islamophobia (Tahirah Amatul-Wadud)

Clothing, Hat, Scarf, and Mitten Drive

Expanding the annual Academy “Coat Drive” tradition to address pandemic-related needs this winter, the Community Service Council gathered all kinds of clothing along with winter coats to donate to Safe Passage in Northampton. In addition, they collected masks and cold-weather accessories through this drive and delivered them to Greenfield to be hung on trees, making them more accessible to our local homeless population.

 

Bookmarks for Liberation Library

Inviting other members of our community to join them at a series of lunch meetings, members of The Honor Council created and donated bookmarks to Liberation Library, a Chicago-based organization that provides books and reading opportunities to incarcerated youth. Each book provided to a young person in prison or jail comes with a letter and one of these personalized bookmarks.