Charles River School Beloved Community Days of Action

Martin Luther King Jr. believed in agape love: “Overflowing love which seeks nothing in return.”

In January, Charles River School held an assembly to kick off our own MLK Beloved Community Days of Action. Head of School Gabe Burnstein shared with students PreK-8 about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision for beloved community. He talked about how MLK Day celebrates the work of Dr. King and it also celebrates the many, many other ordinary people who did extraordinary things together with him in beloved community.

Students were challenged to think of actions they could take to live Dr. King’s vision of beloved community throughout the month and throughout the year. Here’s what they came up with:

PreK – 2 created artwork and cards to thank and spread cheer to our greater community in Dover. They sang joyful songs and delivered the cards to area businesses including town hall, the post office, library, and police station.
Grade 3, 4, and 5, working in partnership with our Community Association, organized a school-wide food drive for the Needham Food Pantry to provide needed items including pasta, jelly, and granola bars. They created flyers to market the drive, did the math to gather data on their collections, and loaded up a van’s worth (689 pounds to be exact) of food!
Middle School students in grades 6, 7, and 8 collected donations for and spent a half-day service learning at the nonprofit organization Cradles to Crayons. They worked in three groups to organize donations including cleaning shoes and sorting large crates of clothing by type and size. Thank you to our community for the many donations of new and nearly new clothes we were able to bring with us to support Cradles to Crayons mission of providing children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school and at play.