On Friday, January 17, the DCD community came together for its annual day of service in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. The day began with two presentations from adults who talked about their experiences and the need they felt to serve others.
For DCD parent Dr. Lawrence Herman, an oral surgeon, this drive began at age 13. He shared a presentation about how working really hard and using his education to succeed professionally gave him the tools to make a difference in the lives of others. Dr. Herman and his wife, Dr. Sara Runnels, who is also an oral surgeon, travel around the world with such organizations as Project Smile and the Smile Train to perform surgeries on children disfigured by war or who have been born with cleft palate or other malformations of the mouth.
Lower School Head Carla Haith shared some stories about her work as the president of the Boston Alumni Chapter of Zeta Nu Sigma. Her affiliation began during her college days as a member of the sorority Sigma Gamma Rho. Now she is able to reconnect with her sisters by getting involved in a variety of service projects. Her favorite, she said, is Operation Big Book Bag, for which she and her sorority sisters filled a thousand backpacks with supplies and books for Boston-area children in need.
Inspired by these two stories of service, students from pre-K to grade 8 then began their morning of service activities, engaging in projects that included writing letters to soldiers and vets through the Operation Gratitude project, creating birthday bags for children at the Walker School, working on DCD’s Cradles to Crayons clothing drive, and baking dog and cat biscuits for the local animal shelter.
Taking a walk down the halls of DCD, you could see children, teachers, and parents deeply engaged and feeling the importance of looking outside themselves and doing good for others in the world beyond our school walls. The day ended with a second community assembly but this time it was the students’ opportunity to share. After a beautiful rendition of ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing” by Ms. Haith’s friend, DaShondra Perry, representatives from each grade talked about how they had spent their morning, telling the audience a bit about each of the projects in which their class was involved. Many of these projects will be continuing throughout the rest of the year. Click on the link below to see a full list of these projects.
2019 DCD MLK Service Learning Activities