Community Service and Beyond
Community service at Kent School is not required, however it is an activity that the majority of students participate in through various clubs.
REACH: REACH stands for ‘Remember Every Action Can Help’, and is tasked with helping those in and around the Kent community. Annual events include the Fall Tag Sale, in which items (such as mini-fridges, lamps, phones, couches, and other dorm items) donated by students each spring are sold to new and returning students the following fall. The Tag Sale takes place the first weekend of school, and the money raised goes towards buying new school clothes and school supplies for needy children living in the town of Kent. The Tag Sale generally raises $2000, enough to sponsor 6-7 local children.
At the end of October, REACH sells Halloween goody bags to students and teachers, and the money raised goes towards buying Christmas presents for local needy children. The club is usually able to buy presents for 10 children through this fundraiser. The club looks to sponsor even more children by opening up gift buying to the entire Kent community through our annual ‘Angel Tree’, where students and faculty are invited to purchase one or two specific items that children have requested.
In February, REACH teams up with a local nun who ministers to the homeless in New York City. REACH sponsors a week long drive for toiletry items to make care kits for the homeless, filling bags with toothpaste, combs, aspirin, cough drops, socks, etc. In addition, members bake homemade cookies all week long to distribute goody bags to the homeless as well. When possible, members go to New York City to help distribute the bags.
During the spring term, REACH members take advantage of the good weather by hosting the Rubber Ducky Race, held on Macedonia Brook; and the Car Wash, held at the hockey rink. Proceeds from these two events go to a local charity of the clubs choosing. Each April, REACH members also participate in the New York City AIDS Walk, and raise money that directly benefits agencies that search for a cure for HIV/AIDS, and supports those living with HIV/AIDS.
Throughout the year, students volunteer at Loaves and Fishes, a local soup kitchen. Different groups of students head to the soup kitchen each Wednesday afternoon to help prepare, serve and clean up after a meal. In addition, students will also volunteer to prepare a meal at Kent, which will then be served at the soup kitchen.
Habitat for Humanity: Kent School’s campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity (www.habitat.org), which was founded in 1987, supports the work of Habitat for Humanity both 
locally and internationally. Locally, students volunteer at a nearby worksite on a Saturday afternoon, doing everything from roofing to yard work. Students must be 14 years or older to be on a Habitat work site.
To raise both money and awareness, the campus chapter hosts ‘Act! Speak! Build! Week’ part of a national Habitat for Humanity campaign. Typical activities include a dress down day, in which students pay $3 for a sticker that allows them to be out of dress code for the day. The sticker has facts about poverty housing right in our own community, as well as around the country and the world. The club invites speakers to chapel services- recent speakers have included the founder of the local soup kitchen, Habitat for Humanity employees and a nun who ministers to the homeless. The movie “The Saint of 9/11” and the television show “30 Days- Minimum Wage” also help broaden students perspectives of the lives of the working poor.
During Spring Break, a group of ten students travel to North Carolina or Virginia to participate in Collegiate Challenge, Habitat’s youth building blitz. The group spends a full week working 8am to 4pm, alongside other students and local volunteers, to build a house. The tasks have varied widely 
over the years, but everyone has a great sense of accomplishment seeing all the work that has been done at the end of our week.
Frequently, the group is able to work with the prospective homeowners as well, making the work that much more meaningful.
Please check out excerpts of students’ thoughts on their Collegiate Challenge experiences, as well as photos, below:
2002- Exmore, VA
2003- Southern Pines, NC
2004- Fayetteville, NC
2006- Charlottesville, VAC
2007- Lynchburg, VA
STAND: STAND is an acronym for ‘Students Taking Action Now: Darfur’, and is part of an international student anti-genocide coalition which is dedicated to ending genocide (
www.standnow.org). STAND hosts an awareness week each fall, and events include showing movies such as “Hotel Rwanda”, “Translating Genocide” and “The Constant Gardener”, as well as inviting guest speakers such as Dr. Charles MacCormack, president of Save the Children (
www.savethechildren.org), and Stephanie Nyombayire `04, a representative of the Genocide Intervention Network (
www.genocideintervention.net) and a Rwandan native.
STAND members also host letter writing campaigns to local senators and members of Congress, urging them to take action against the current genocide in Darfur.
Animal Rights Club: The Animal Rights club supports a local animal shelter, The Little Guild of St. Francis (www.littleguild.org) through monetary donations and volunteering one weekend per month. Volunteers clean the cat cages, groom the cats and help socialize the cats. The club raises money by holding a dress down day each fall in which students pay $3 for a sticker that allows them to be out of dress code that day. The sticker has facts about animal cruelty and factory farms. The club also holds several vegan bake sales throughout the year. Any traditional cookie or brownie recipe can be ‘vegan-ized’ by replacing the butter with oil or margarine, and the eggs with applesauce, mashed banana or mashed tofu (1/4 of either replaces one egg).
FABB: FABB stands for ‘For A Better Beginning’ and helps to support needy inner-city schools. The club was inspired by Laurada Byers `66, founder of the Russell Byers Charter School (www.byersschool.org). The club holds drives to collect school supplies for the Byers School, among others. Club members also collect and send used textbooks and SAT prep books to inner-city high schools.
My Soldier Club: The My Soldier Club supports our troops serving overseas. The club is neither for nor against any specific war, but simply seeks to make the lives of servicemen and women overseas a bit easier. The club works with four members of the army, three men and one woman. The club sends a care package each term, as well as letters each month. During the holidays, the My Soldier Club invites all members of the Kent School community to create a holiday chain by writing messages of hope and support on slips of paper, which are then sent to our soldiers, who glue them into a paper chain to decorate their living quarters.
Summer Mission Trips: Kent School sponsors community service trips abroad each summer. The trips are one to two weeks long, and supervised by Kent faculty members. Please check out the links below to read about our past trips, and see photos of our projects:
2003- Nicaragua- Peace Corps volunteer (www.peacecorps.gov)
2004- Costa Rica- Globe Aware (www.globeaware.org)
2005- Peru- Globe Aware (www.globeaware.org)
2006- El Salvador- Episcopal Relief and Development Center (www.er-d.org)
2007- Juarez, Mexico- Emmanuel Ministries orphanage (www.emmanuelministries-juarez.org)
Phone: 860-927-6111