NCCS Community Service: Practicing a Mindset of Empathy and Kindness
New Canaan Country School students in Grades 1-9 participated in a variety of service learning projects in February and March, including restocking a local food pantry with soup and supporting those in need with warm blankets and inspirational handmade cards. Activities were augmented with workshops and experiential activities focusing on the role of empathy and kindness within a community.
The Upper School’s Community Service Club, which organizes projects throughout the year, held a SOUP-er Bowl Sunday-themed canned soup drive in the week leading up to the Super Bowl.
“I feel very fortunate to have the resources to do good things for other people,” said ninth grader Charlotte Cooper, who, together with classmates Samantha Alliapoulios, Itzel Llamas and Ellie Levinson, collected cans for the non-profit organization Person-To-Person of Darien from Feb. 6-11. “The Community Service Club provides a platform for many of us to be able to come together and strengthen what we are capable of doing individually,” added Cooper. Additional ninth grade club members who have had leadership roles with projects earlier in the year include Larson Johnson, Andrés Catano, Jayden Liu, and Pippa Johnson, who worked with the non-profit Fill in the Blanks to assemble food packages for the holiday season. Seventh Graders Madsie MacLear, Fleur van Reesema, Barrett Hanson and Lucy Anne Kurtz also held crucial roles in the second trimester, organizing a drive for animals in need at PAWS Norwalk. Eighth Graders Blake Willams and Bennett Kurtz took the initiative to organize donations for the Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County, which will continue in the third trimester.
Students in Grades 5-6 gathered to learn more about empathy and the ripple effect even one small act of kindness can have within a community. They created inspirational messages of encouragement and attached them to warm blankets which were distributed to local organizations as part of the Blankets of Hope, a Brooklyn-based non-profit organization, movement of kindness.
The school’s Parents’ Association facilitated a kindness workshop where families could join in to further this mission. “A mindset of kindness can positively impact an entire community,” said parent volunteer Molly Ghoussias. “It is so wonderful to see our community coming together in living our school’s core value of kindness.”
New Canaan Country School
New Canaan Country School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin and are afforded all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry, or disability in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, financial aid policies or any other school-administered programs.
