Reaching Beyond the Groton Circle

Students worked at 14 sites: they sorted food at the Merrimack Valley Food Bank in Lowell and organized donations at Household Goods Recycling of Massachusetts in Acton. They shared musical performances at RiverCourt Residences in West Groton and Nashoba Park Assisted Living in Ayer, played with homeless pets at the animal shelter in Sterling, and helped with landscaping at the Heading Home Shelter in Roxbury. 

Other sites visited included Our Father’s House in Fitchburg; the Roudenbush Community Center in Westford; the town library and playground, Keyes Woods, and Seven Hills Pediatric Center, all in Groton; and the common and senior center in West Groton.

 

The Community Day of Service was a chance for students and faculty to step outside their routines and think about neighbors not far from Groton’s Circle, and to reflect on the responsibility every member has to his or her community. "As I watched our students reach beyond themselves, I was moved not just by the impact they were having on our neighbors, but also by the way they surprised each other,” said Director of Community Engagement and English Teacher Jonathan Freeman-Coppadge, who planned the event. “We all learned something—about our world, about each other, and about ourselves.”