This past January, the entire MBS community participated in the Crimson Afternoon of Service. Activities ranged from service-minded pursuits like blanket making and packing lunches to uplifting projects like making slime. Middle school students, Upper school students, and faculty members were able to engage with each other and interact with various clubs and organizations on campus.
MBS’s Afternoon of Service originated from working with the non-profit organization, Stay Tough and Game (S.T.A.G), helping to raise awareness in memory of Neal Ramasamy ‘23. S.T.A.G is an organization that provides comfort, joy, and gaming resources to children undergoing cancer treatment. The focal point of the Crimson Afternoon of Service was collecting new or gently used gaming equipment and arts and crafts supplies to support S.T.A.G.
Erinn Salge, Director of Anderson Library and Student Activities, reflecting on last year’s MLK Day of Service, decided to “take these two things and put them together.” Ms. Salge also noted her own experience with community service. “I have a strong background in service, and it’s really important to me,” she said, “and since I oversee the clubs, it seemed like a great opportunity for clubs to have something to work towards in the middle of winter.”
“I also believe that service is the best way you can be a community with other people,” she said. “A lot is going on in the outside world right now, so it could feel really good to have a concrete goal of something that is helping other people.”
When speaking about how well-organized the club and club leaders were, Ms. Salge commended the engagement that the club leaders created.
“Any classroom I dropped in on, it was run like a finely oiled machine,” she said. “Some of the club leaders are seniors, and some of the leaders are sophomores, and they’re doing an amazing job executing something that I gave some direction for, but I purposely left it pretty open-ended, which can be intimidating. I was really impressed with how the student leaders stepped up as well as how the community stepped up to make all those sandwiches and bead all those bracelets, and just respect the day for what it was.”
Almost every classroom on campus held different activities hosted by the many varied student-led organizations. Although this day was a showcase of service, students enthusiastically led all the activities. Community service-based clubs, such as the Red Cross Club, participated in the “Totes of Hope” Drive and packed bags of personal items to be donated. The Bridges Club packed sandwiches, which were also donated. Even non-community service-based clubs, such as Glow, created care-bags for the New Jersey Battered Women’s Shelter, which contained notebooks, socks, pens, and other goods.
One of the leaders of Glow, Lola Schleifer ‘27, shared her thoughts on the Crimson Afternoon of Service. “I hope we were able to provide some of the women and children at the shelter with joy in their lives,” she said. “It’s possible that we helped donate resources and materials they otherwise would not have had access to, and hopefully we were able to brighten their days.”
Schleifer also showed great appreciation for overall community engagement: “We had a lot of turnout between the upper school and the middle school, and it was really great to see everyone working together as a community to help GLOW.”
Ultimately, the day of service was a success as students were able to practice leadership skills and show appreciation for the many causes that clubs supported. Community service is a valued aspect of the Morristown Beard Community, and the day of service allowed all students to engage with their peers while simultaneously making a difference in the community.
