Dear Harbor Families,

As part of our mission to develop confident, kind, and capable learners, we seek out opportunities for students to have agency in improving their lives and the lives of others. This happens through experiences related to our interdisciplinary inquiry-based units throughout the year. This fall, JK students explored a unit of Communities and Kindness. As part of this unit, they delivered doughnuts to the fire house next door, and visited a senior center, and put together thoughtful treasures for the children at Children’s Inn at NIH. At the same time of year,  all Harbor students made a kindness quilt in art class. These hands-on experiences help students understand their responsibility as citizens in communities, and the fact that small efforts can make a big difference in people’s lives!

This Monday, we hope you will join us for our annual MLK Day of Service in support of these goals! We are excited to host a different kind of event this year, which will be meaningful for the students, support the larger community, and fun for the whole family! In addition to collecting donations of winter gear (thank you to those who have sent in new or gently used coats, hats, gloves, and scarves), we will be hosting a Dance-a-Thon to earn monetary donations to support Thrive DC, an organization that supports hunger and homelessness. 

If you are able to join us on Monday at 3 PM, please have your child collect pledges from friends and family for each minute they plan to dance (we’ll have 60 minutes allocated for dancing!). We’ll begin the afternoon with a representative of Thrive DC, who will help the students understand the organization’s mission, then will pass out stopwatches and start the dancing! 

Thanks to the HSFA for sponsoring this event, and to Christian Nowlin and Allison Peppelman, Co-Chairs of our Harbor HEROes committee (which stands for Harbor Enjoys Reaching Out). In addition to helping with the event logistics including the dance party playlist, Christian and Allison will be providing activities for a “quiet zone” for kids when and if they need it.

Following the event, students should use their math skills to calculate the amount they earned from each pledge and then follow up with those from which they collected pledges to ask that they donate the amount directly to the organization.

Please feel free to invite friends and family if you would like; all are welcome to collect pledges and join in the fun. It should be a fun and meaningful Day of Service. I, for one, am looking forward to dancing with the kids on Monday and encourage members of our community of all ages to join in!

Warmly,

Leah Musico
Head of School