Ridgefield Academy's Helping Community Supports Locals in Need

RA Helping Community

Although Service Learning is a valuable part of the Ridgefield Academy (RA) experience throughout the school year, the holiday season offers many opportunities for our students and families to share their time, money, and talents to help others. Food and toy drives, volunteer gift wrapping, and the concert for Ability Beyond are much anticipated holiday traditions at RA.

“We strive to help our students further understand the world around and how we can all make a difference. We work with organizations in our area so that students can have hands-on experiences with those in need. We then bring the experience back to the classrooms and further discuss the programs to help our students get a deeper and more meaningful experience and how they can continue to do good,” said Service Learning Coordinator Jessica Brooks.

This past November, Grade 4 rallied the RA community to help them stock the shelves of the Ridgefield Food Pantry through a Thanksgiving Day Food Drive. On the day of the big delivery to the Food Pantry, students created an assembly line to bring the boxes from the van to the donation center. Much to the amazement of Director of Social Services Tony Phillips, the food not only filled the shelves, but the tables, chairs and floor! This service learning project challenged the students to understand the issues surrounding food insecurity in their local town, as well as pinpoint a solution.

Wanting to share the magic, joy, and love of the holiday season, RA students, under the guidance of Service Learning Coordinator Jessica Brooks, launched a new, unwrapped Holiday Toy Drive in early December. Toys were collected and donated to benefit the families served by Family & Children’s Aid in Danbury, CT, as well as Toys for Tots in Ridgefield.

Service Learning intentionally brings students and their families off of campus and into the community. RA volunteers were on site at Family & Children’s Aid to help them collect and sort the toys they received from their Danbury toy drive. This past weekend, students and their families raised money for Habitat for Humanity by wrapping gifts for holiday shoppers at the Danbury Fair Mall.

“It was a wonderful opportunity to visit Family and Children's Aid with my own family. We had the chance to see where our donations were going and help to sort the toys to be given out. It was a great way for us to spend time as a family as well as give back to this amazing resource that does so much for our community,” said Head of Preschool & Lower School Alison O’Callaghan.

Joyful learning is part of the RA experience, and it is certainly seen through our service-learning program. Grades 6-8 Chorus, directed by Middle & Upper School Chorus & Drama Teacher Debbi Curry, lit up Hope Hall with a variety of traditional and pop holiday songs to a very spirited audience on December 18. Over 30 guests from Ability Beyond were delighted by their performance of “Jambo - Hakuna Matata”, “Light the Candles of Hanukkah”, “Rudolph”, and of course, Mariah Carey’s rendition of “All I Want for Christmas is You.” See the video here.

"The concert is just a wonderful way for our students to share their love of music with others in the community and to use their gifts to uplift their audience in a powerful way," said Debbi Curry.  

Service-learning opportunities like these teach civic responsibility, strengthens our school and neighboring communities, and enriches the academic learning experience. It also enriches the human experience. Students learn the value and joy of caring for people in their community.

“Our service-learning program helps students build their character with lessons around kindness, empathy and the value of being a good student citizen and what it truly means,” said Jessica Brooks.

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Submitted by Westport, CT

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