News

Service Equals Success By Kayla Zenk, Courtesy of Kent News

Community service at Kent has never been more successful. From newly-launched clubs to long-term organizations, each group has contributed a lot of time and effort in order to give back to the local community.

The Special Olympics Club, after having just started last year, has become one of the leading community service clubs at Kent. This winter, the club hosted a Special Olympics of Connecticut basketball game on our home court. In addition to the fourteen athletes who participated, the boys varsity basketball team was able to participate as well. Each athlete played two twenty-minute scrimmages: in addition, they received one-on-one coaching from one of the varsity boys, a great opportunity for the athletes to develop their skills.

Afterward, everyone was able to come out onto the court to play with the athletes and get to know them. “A lot of the athletes told us that that was their favorite part,” says Club President Emily O’Brien ’12. She also comments, “A lot of the athletes will say that [the games are] the best part of their week or month…they each have a big heart. Working with them makes you takes a step back and re-evaluate the little things you complain about.”

REACH (Remember Every Action Can Help) members have also been very busy this year. The club sponsored an ‘Angel Tree,' which provided Christmas gifts for 36 local children. Many students, eager to help out for a great cause, wrapped presents that were on the children’s wish lists. “That’s my favorite thing to do,” says President of REACH Phoebe Shepherd ’11, “giving kids things on Christmas that they wouldn’t otherwise get.”

Just recently the club sold tickets to Chocolate Fest, which is held annually at the Kent Center School. Students who bought tickets picked up a plate full of delicious baked goods and chocolate or went over to the school to make their own chocolate-filled cornucopias. The money raised at the event went to the Kent Center School Scholarship Fund.  REACH also sent care packages of toiletry items such as Kleenex packets, Purell, and hats and scarves, in addition to homemade cookies, to the homeless in New York City. Mrs. Sokolnicki is, Director of Community Service, remarked that she was “really happy with everything [REACH] has accomplished this year.”

What makes Mrs. Sokolnicki most pleased “is that community service is not seen as something special [anymore]…it’s becoming part of the life of the school, not something separate.”