Second Annual Non Sibi Day Engages 1,500

Nearly 1,500 volunteers at posts that included 92 locations in the United States and six abroad participated.

September 16, 2008 -There are eager schoolchildren in Iraq who soon will have new notebooks, markers, and soccer balls. Needy children in Lawrence, Mass., will snuggle in new fleece blankets this fall, and some of the city's less fortunate residents will find several shelters scrubbed and freshly painted. Refugee children in Hong Kong have just celebrated their birthdays-with cake and presents-for the first time. In Kenya, Africa, residents of an orphanage were served a special dinner. In Durham, N.C., homeless citizens first looked askance as carloads of multigenerational Andover alums unloaded in the Durham Urban Ministries parking lot, but meals served and other tasks completed led project leader Song Kim '07 to say, “the day ended with many empty trays, full stomachs, and full hearts.” And the list goes on.

All were part of Phillips Academy's second annual Non Sibi Day, an event that invites all members of the Andover community-students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, grandparents, and friends-to give up a substantial part of a Saturday to serve in their communities. Non Sibi Day takes its name from Phillips Academy's Latin motto, which translates as “not for self.” Last Saturday, September 13, found nearly 1,500 volunteers at posts that included 92 locations in the United States and six abroad.

Beginning at 7:30 a.m. when the first bus rolled away from the Academy's staging area at Cochran Chapel, the Andover campus was a beehive of spirited activity. This year, the weather cooperated as students, along with faculty, parents and alumni, were off to Thompson Island in Boston Harbor to work on the Outward Bounds site, to help with the harvest at local farms, to tackle Habitat for Humanity projects and to help with trail and river cleanups. Others headed off to retirement communities, food banks and homeless shelters, a campus day care center where they painted a colorful wall mural, and myriad other projects. Lunches and water were delivered late morning. By the end of the day, a tired but overall very happy corps of more than 1,300 workers poured off the busses, eager to share their experiences with each other.

Chad Green, director of community service, organized the 47 events that involved the student body and was pleased the day had gone so well. “For our new community members, Non Sibi Day is an introduction. For others, it represents the chance to renew or celebrate ties and an ethic of being that grew out of the Andover experience as students or as the parents of students. Either way, participants were asked to put their own concerns on the back burner for a few hours and roll up their sleeves. Not surprisingly, the Andover community responded with gusto.”

Non Sibi Day was a great leveler. School president Malin Adams '09 manned a posthole digger in Lawrence at the Habitat for Humanity site on Market Street, where 14 multifamily homes were destroyed in a conflagration last January-far below sure-footed parent Leslie Azaret (mother of Lydia '12) who nailed shingles on the roof. Berol Dewdney '09, captain of the girls varsity track team, sat of the floor of George Washington Hall-along with parent Mary Jane McDonough (mother of Michael '09) and her younger son, Andrew-taping boxes to send to Iraqi schools. Dewdney said she was moved by the opportunity to learn more about life in Iraq from Andover Arabic instructor Mohammed Harba, and “do something peaceful and constructive for the Iraqi people.”

Rarinthip “June” Supapannachart '11 had never heard the word “casserole” when the manager of Emmaus House in Haverhill, Mass. assigned PA volunteers their first task. But being the enterprising young woman that she is, she whipped out her iPhone and googled the answer in seconds. She set about making casseroles “with great enthusiasm and absolute joy,” said volunteer Lisa Smith, a development researcher in the Office of Academy Resources.

Deborah Burdett Murphy '86, director of alumni affairs, participated with her children in a bulb-planting project and commented that Andover alumni “recognize Non Sibi Day as a chance to do something for others and also to connect with Andover friends, faculty and students. Many of our alumni project leaders have let us know they thought the day was a huge success, and one is already eager to begin planning for Non Sibi Day 2009!” Murphy cited the alum who had helped plan and put on the birthday party for children in Hong Kong. Alicia Eastman ’93 wrote to Murphy: “This experience reinforced my pride in the school and its alumni. Andover is a special place and I am grateful to be a member of a community with the ability to give.”