Why We Relay
Source/Author: Mike Murphy, Headmaster
April 06, 2018
Why do we support The Kind Mouse and The Free Clinic Food Bank? Why do we have a Holiday Gift Drive to support the foster children in the Guardian ad Litem program? Why do we have a Service Week?
What do our children learn when they bring in canned food for others? What do we teach our children when we have them bring in a gift for a foster child? What motivates our children to form teams and raise money for the American Cancer Society through Relay For Life?
Service and Learning are important practices. When combined into a Service Learning program there is the potential for our students and other community members to view citizenship through a lens not often learned in schools. We realize that we are doing much more than acts of charity. We learn that we are engaged in solving problems and challenges that touch our lives and the lives of all who share the community in which we live. Service Learning has the potential to take a single act and turn it into a habit of mind that results in a full-blown movement.
Think about Relay For Life. Our student leaders and their friends have been working for eight months to put on this community-wide event that will raise money to address the many faceted issues related to cancer. Many of our student leaders have been focused on building Relay Teams, educating people about cancer and raising money to fight the battle against cancer since they were in Lower School. Our student leaders have learned that a one-time event is not enough. They have learned that cancer is not beat overnight. They have learned that the united efforts of this community - and all the communities that Relay - begin to make a difference.
Many of our students and their families have been touched in very personal ways by cancer. The luminaria bags that will encircle the track on Friday evening will remind us of those who are fighting cancer and those we have lost. The day to day, month to month, and year to year efforts our children and their families invest in Relay make the battle against cancer a habit of mind. Our students have HOPE because year after year they see old and new members of the community join the fight. They have learned to persist. They have learned the power of community. They have learned many, many lessons because of their service. The Service Learning has become a part of their lives.
Tonight we will remember some very special people we have lost to cancer. We will remember Monica Stypinski and others who made wonderful contributions to their families and to the Shorecrest community. We Relay because we want to know that we did our best to try and support the finding of a CURE.
We Relay because, like all of our service, it makes us a better community and gives us HOPE!
Cheers!
Mike
