Reaching Out to Community

By Jen Onken, US English Department, US Outreach Coordinator, Girls JV Lacrosse Coach

One thing I love about volunteering with Berwick Academy students is their earnest eagerness. They line themselves up to tackle a project, listen to directions, put their heads down, and begin.

This is especially prevalent among members of the Outreach Team (@berwickoutreach), a group of students who volunteer in the community a few days a week after school during the winter season. Founded in 2009, the team currently consists of 16 students, a combination of varsity athletes who receive credit for their work and JV volunteers.

Participants usually spend one day a week on campus cooking meals in the Test Kitchen for local families in need. Off-campus outreach includes volunteering currently at elementary schools in Dover and Portsmouth; working in the GATHER food pantry in Portsmouth; cooking meals at the Table of Plenty Community Supper; and packing food bags for Somersworth school children for End 68 Hours of Hunger.

Members of the boys soccer team assisted the staff at Laudholm Farm with putting away picnic tables for the winter. Players from the girls soccer program packed food bags for local children facing food insecurity, while the cross country team served soup at a local fundraiser to help heat our neighbors’ homes this winter.

Among the goals for the winter, the Outreach Team is considering the bigger picture of need. That includes answering questions around the systemic issues that make it difficult for some families to make ends meet. We hope our students will consider that with each bag of food filled, there is a child living nearby whose family is struggling to feed them.

When we assist organizations in their good work, we help to repair some gaps across a wide range of struggles in our Seacoast community. Engaging in earnest work, we make connections — human connections and thinking connections. We want our students to ask big questions about how social forces work, why people are struggling, and what forms of assistance are useful. When we work hard on a project, we begin to better understand and build communities where everyone can thrive.