Community service efforts abound throughout MICDS on a daily basis, and December is no exception. From donations and drives to service projects and tournaments, it’s clear that our School is living up to its Mission of embracing all the world’s people with compassion. Learn about the latest acts of kindness below.
BJC Hospice Blankets and Cards
Tenth graders participated in a service project during Enrichment this week. They made holiday and get well cards as well as no-sew blankets for children in the hospital and for the elderly in senior living institutions. All of the items they made are supporting BJC Hospice.
CARE Bake Sale for the Humane Society of Sonoma County
CARE (Club for Animal Rights and Education) at MICDS held a bake sale earlier this month where donations went to the Humane Society of Sonoma County. The club led this effort to help save and rehabilitate lost pets that were injured in the California wildfires. A total of $425 was raised for this cause. On behalf of CARE, thank you to everyone who devoted their time to baking delicious treats.
Derek D. Martin Food Drive
Upper School students brought in food to their advisories this month for the annual Derek D. Martin Food Drive in memory of the father of Kayla Martin ’17 and Jordan Martin ’06 who was killed in the line of duty. Firemen from Derek’s engine house received the donations at the end of the Upper School assembly last week. They’ve been delivering the bags of food to families in need this holiday season.
Eighth Grade Community Service Day
In 8th grade at MICDS, students are asked to perform 20 hours of community service. For one day out of the school year, the class goes out into the community to help non-profit organizations. Students receive 5 hours of community service for their work.
That day for this year’s 8th grade class was December 11. Students went to University City Children’s Center, Youth and Family Center, Northside Community School, St. Louis Area Foodbank and Southside Early Childhood Center. They helped with raking leaves, moving sand, boxing food, assisting in classrooms, playing with children, organizing rooms, performing kitchen duties and creating winter wonderlands.
Diving into one of the experiences at the St. Louis Foodbank, students were given information about hunger and the St. Louis Metro area. They did activities to help them sympathize with others who may be going through difficult situations, realizing that anyone can “fall on hard times” no matter their socioeconomic status. Students also practiced writing letters to their representatives.
Thank you to the 8th grade class for making such a positive impact!
Helping Hands Holiday Toy Drive
This month, MICDS families donated new toys, games and books for children as part of Helping Hands, an annual MICDS school-wide holiday toy drive. The drive benefits FamilyForward, an organization that serves underprivileged children within the St. Louis community. The families served often must choose between buying food, paying bills and giving holiday gifts to their children.
With the donated gifts, FamilyForward transforms their offices into a “toy store wonderland” where a parent, foster parent or social worker can “shop for an angel” and select that perfect holiday gift for their child. Each year, FamilyForward supplies gifts to more than 800 children, brightening their holidays.
MICDS is fortunate to have such generous, thoughtful, and compassionate families. We thank them for their willingness to help others in our area give their children something special for the holidays!
Warming Up St. Louis
During the month of November, Upper School students collected gently used or new winter coats and new gloves, mittens, scarves, hats and socks for Warm Up St. Louis. The collection was organized by Skyler Lesslie ’20. Adult items went to veterans and the homeless served by St. Patrick Center while youth items went to The Little Bit Foundation. Thank you to everyone who helped make this winter a bit more cozy and warm for others!
Winter Squash Tournament Trades “Tins” for Wins
The 6th annual 2018 Winter Squash Tournament, held this past Tuesday evening on the MICDS Hermann Squash Courts, was a huge success with 76 players participating and over 400 “tinned goods” (canned goods in American English) collected for the St. Louis Area Foodbank!
Congratulations to JV/C Assistant Coach Mohammad Tahir, winner of the Red Division, and Robby Greenspan ’17, winner of the Green Division, who had fantastic final matches. Recognition for their hard-fought battles is also due to Mohammad Amin, runner-up in the Red Division (and father of Haadis Amin ’23 and Imaan Amin ’21), and Middle School teacher and Girls Varsity coach Robyn Williams, runner-up in the Green Division.
Sincere thanks to Stacy Cooper, Rachel Paul, Susan Goldberg and the Varsity Girls’ parents for providing the impressive holiday spread of cookies, drinks, oranges, Gatorade, granola bars and snacks.
The Winter Squash Tournament has become a gathering place for returning alumni from the MICDS squash program, and this week was marked by the return of many: Connie Gonzalez-Navarrine ’18, Lizzy Reisinger ’18, Robby Greenspan ’18, Nick Jones ’18, Atri Bhattacharyya ’18, Matthew Royce ’16, Will McDowell ’16, Alex Jasper ’16, Patrick Keeley ’16, Drew Lilly ’16, Sarah (Clark) Woodburn ’84, Stacey (Lohr) Graves ’89, and Dan ’86 and Tracy (Kaye) Jasper ’86 all enthusiastically showed their support for squash at our school, whether on or off the court. Several families came out en masse to compete, including the Sorkin, Jasper, Goot, Mikulec and Graves families.
And finally, a special call-out to all the parents of current players and faculty who attended and played—it was great to see how the squash community has grown!
The MICDS squash family, including Coaches Brennan ’94, Clarke, Doherty, Tahir and Williams, wishes you happy holidays and good wishes for the winter break and looks forward to welcoming you as spectators and players in 2019.
