I remember before I left school, a student told me that Community Day was probably the best day of the year. I was very excited to find out that we would be continuing my school’s tradition despite the effects of COVID-19. This year marked the 12th anniversary of this day, and it would definitely be one to remember.
I go to Welsh Valley Middle School in Narberth, PA, and one of our traditions is Community Day. Community Day is a fun end of the year event we do where we all get together and help and serve our communities. For me, this would be my first year experiencing Community Day, and I was so excited. I couldn’t wait to come together with the rest of my peers and teachers to have a day of service. But then Coronavirus happened. I was pretty bummed that we probably weren’t going to have the Community Day like I thought we would. But I had a feeling we were still going to do something.
And sure enough, we were! Out of all the things it seems this pandemic has ruined, Community Day wasn’t going to be one of them. We would still be coming together as a school to support each other.
A typically Community Day at my school would look like this:
1. Yearbook distribution/signing
2. Classroom activities that teach students about the charities we are supporting
3. A movie in the auditorium that teaches lessons of togetherness and kindness
4. A Quad fair with carnival games built and run by our WV TSA program, educational tables about the different charities and school organizations/groups, a basketball knockout tournament, a DJ with student musical performances, and a dunk tank.
5. A video yearbook slideshow
Seems like the most awesome day ever, right? Obviously this wouldn’t be the case this year, but we still had an effective way to continue this tradition.
1. We could post a video of us washing our hands. Maybe we could come up with some kind of dance to do for the 20 seconds!
2. We could post a video saying thank you to parents, friends, family, teachers, WV staff, etc who have helped us during these challenging times.
3. We could post a picture of us dropping off food to a local food bank. This year’s goal is to help our local Narberth and Ardmore food banks.
We would be doing this all week through a Google Form by May 29th (Chromatica!) and our pictures and videos would be posted on the school’s Twitter page.
So, it’s pretty obvious that this year was going to be different. In the 12 years we’ve been doing this, we would’ve never imagined we’d have to do it this way. But I think it’ll be a neat way to show Dragon Pride while keeping our distance. Welsh Valley Dragon or not, I encourage you to try this yourself! Have fun if you do!
I can’t wait to see all the charitable acts of kindness my peers and teachers will be doing for Community Day. Of course, I’ll be doing some, but seeing what other people are doing is the best part for me.
Some things people did!
So many students and staff participated in Community Day this year!
Lots of students and staff donated to the Narberth Food Bank and made fun hand-washing videos. Scrolling through the pictures made me feel really happy because there were so many creative ideas!
This was also a time to thank our Welsh Valley staff for all their hard work throughout the year. This event and many others that happened this year wouldn’t have been possible without them. There were many other events we missed out on because of COVID-19, but I knew there was no way the staff would let it ruin Community Day! We all had fun, that’s for sure.
Anyways, I thought this was the perfect story to share with all of you. It really shows that nothing should stop you from spreading kindness and helping others, even if it means being physically distant from the rest of the world. Stay safe and healthy everyone, and I’ll be writing again soon!
