Non Sibi Day Unites Andover Community

More than 2,000 Phillips Academy students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents participated in the Academy’s first-ever Non Sibi Day on Saturday, September 15, making the worldwide day of service a grand success.

September 21, 2007 — Phillips Academy’s motto, “non sibi,” urges community members to live “not for self”; appropriately, Non Sibi Day engaged the entire student body, as well as faculty and staff members, in a variety of local community service projects. Meanwhile, alumni and parents of students organized and participated in additional goodwill projects throughout the United States and around the globe.

“We have everything given to us, and these people have so little. I’m grateful for the reminder,” said Sarah Parr ’10, who joined 16 students and three faculty members at the Cor Unum Meal Center in nearby Lawrence, Mass. The Phillips Academy contingent prepared food, set tables, served dinner to hundreds of hungry patrons in need of a meal, then cleared and washed dishes.

“It feels great to be a part of this day,” said Jessica Moreno, a fellow lower. “When everyone does a small part, it becomes something really big.”

Non Sibi Day was certainly big—though organizers, proud of what was accomplished, are hopeful the day will prove to be just the beginning of something even bigger. Michael Ebner, the Academy’s director of alumni affairs, said September 15 was merely the first step in what need be a long-term approach to giving.

“A large part of what we wanted to experience was the tremendous depth and breadth of need in the world today,” said Ebner, who serves also as the Academy’s chaplain. “Just as education is not a class, or grade, or syllabus, it is rather a lifelong process, so too is ‘non sibi’ not about a day, a place, a project, but rather it is an attitude. It is less about a day of service and more about a life of service. It is not just about selfless giving, it is about selfless living.”

Demonstrating that philosophy so inherent in a Phillips Academy education, the school’s alumni responded in numbers to a call for Non Sibi Day projects. In total, volunteers toiled in 27 states, in 13 countries, and on five continents.

In Togo, West Africa, Elizabeth Tung ’00 led a nutrition clinic for families with HIV/AIDS, while in Hong Kong, a group birthday party was thrown for underprivileged youths who have never experienced that rite of childhood. In the United States, food banks, food kitchens, and shelters in Chicago, Honolulu, Manchester, N.H., New York City, Portland, Maine, and San Francisco benefited, as did river and shoreline clean-up efforts from Massachusetts to California, New York to Alaska. 

Close to Andover, the entire Phillips Academy ninth-grade class worked to clean the Spicket River and surrounding areas in Lawrence. Despite heavy rains, students, faculty, and staff persevered, collecting the debris that clogged a gurgling Spicket River tributary. Pulled from the 20-foot wide stream: skateboards, bikes, tires, bricks, air conditioners, even an ATM machine!

Elsewhere, students made 20 fleece blankets for underprivileged infants; prepared 180 pallets of books to be distributed to children in third-world countries; water sealed two playground structures, five benches, two garbage cans, and a gazebo at a local grade school; and cleaned a beach and painted a house on Thompson Island, an Outward Bound facility located in Boston Harbor. The projects—the good brought to the world—go on and on.

“This is definitely rewarding,” said Morgan Hyde ’11. “We can see what a difference we’re making.”

Countdown to Non Sibi Day!

September 6, 2007

As volunteers continue to sign up for projects on September 15—the inaugural Non Sibi Day—organizers are poised for a substantial outpouring of goodwill and public service. Nearly 2,000 members of the Phillips Academy community worldwide have pledged their time and energy on that day in a rich diversity of projects. Alumni in areas where projects have not been created can go online to find individual or group efforts led by other organizations you are welcome to join. It’s not too late to get involved. If you’re having problems registering, please contact the office of alumni affairs, nonsibi@andover.edu, or 978-749-4282.

Non Sibi Day 2007 Logo Contest Winner Announced

Last Spring, the call went out from the campus Non Sibi Day Steering Committee for entries in the first Non Sibi Day Logo Design Contest. Seven student artists answered the call. Only one could be chosen. And the winning entry is…

The super bees peeling off to take on the world are the brainchild of Rebecca “Q” Yankes ’07, of Nashua, N.H., who last week began her freshman year at Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. The logo will be prominently featured on the back of the Non Sibi Day t-shirts, which will be distributed to all volunteers. The front of the shirts will carry a small imprint of the original sun logo, designed by PA's art director Ellen Hardy. The sun logo (seen in the column to the left) was adapted from the school's seal, designed by Paul Revere. This will remain the official logo for Non Sibi Day in years to come, but organizers plan to hold a yearly logo contest, asking students to enter designs for that year’s t-shirts and posters. Congratulations, “Q”!

Rich and Varied Projects Are Springing Up!

June 6, 2007

More than 50 locations around the world have been identified as project sites for Non Sibi Day. In cities such as San Francisco and Boston, project leaders are busy organizing multiple projects. These examples give a flavor of the range of issues, and of the creativity and energy pouring into preparations for September 15!

Murrey Nelson ’80 has five projects organized in San Francisco to date.

• RAFT—Resource Area for Teachers: Non Sibi Day volunteers will sort and bag donated supplies for art and science classrooms in pre-K through 12 school and community programs.
• Sacred Heart Community Center: Volunteers, after training, will spend the day providing essential services to those in need, offering bagged lunches, distributing groceries to families and homeless, organizing and distributing clothing donations.
• Terrano Gardens Extended Care Center: Volunteers will spend the day making individual visits, helping with arts and crafts, participating in musical performances, escorting residents to meals.
• Tech Museum of Innovation: A hands-on science and technology museum to inspire the inventor in everyone, this site will employ volunteers with special projects throughout the museum.
• Humane Society Silicon Valley: Volunteers will help take care of animals in the shelter and interact with animals and families in the comprehensive services provided.

From Boston, Mike Koehler  ’94 reports that three projects are confirmed and several others pending. Those confirmed are:

• Thompson Island Outward Bound: Volunteers will work on general maintenance projects such as landscaping, painting, and beach cleanup on the Boston Harbor island.
• ReVision House Urban Farm: Volunteers will help with the fall harvest, prepare vegetable beds for winter, and perform general maintenance.
• Pine Street Inn: This large homeless shelter will put volunteers to work preparing and serving meals, and perhaps staffing tables at an art auction to benefit the Inn.

Faculty Participation in Non Sibi Day

May 25, 2007

During cluster meetings at the end of this year, all faculty will have an opportunity to ask members of the campus-based Planning Committee questions about Non Sibi Day. Faculty also will be asked to fill out a short form indicating which type of projects they might like to take part in, either as a leader or a participant.

In anticipation of this opportunity, the Office of Community Service will distribute a flyer in all faculty mailboxes outlining what the choice of preferences (interest areas) will look like, and a sampling of what projects would be associated with each interest area. In order to make the process at cluster meetings as smooth as possible, we ask that you look over this flyer beforehand. Because many details of the day are still to be determined, we are unable to sign up faculty for specific projects right now—but we will attempt to match all faculty to a project that fits their interests and needs. The purpose of this process is also to get a baseline number of faculty who will be participating on the day, for our planning purposes—so although it’s far away, please take a look at your calendars now!

Non Sibi Day Wins Abbot Grant

 Amy Zimmerman ’90, president of the Abbot Academy Association, said that all the directors of the Association “were really excited about the Non Sibi Day proposal because it is a tremendously ambitious, exciting undertaking in line with the mission of Phillips Academy, as well as an effort to create community involving alumni of both Phillips and Abbot Academy, and we wanted to help in any way we could.” Zimmerman also said the group was impressed by the quality of the proposal and the passion of presenters Green and Savino. “We hope this is just the beginning of many Non Sibi Days to come,” she said.

The purpose of Non Sibi Day, as stated in the proposal, “…is to unite the greater Andover community—student, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, and friends of the Academy—through community service projects that will take place locally, across the nation, and literally around the world. Non Sibi Day will be a celebration of the tradition of service that is fundamental to our ‘private school with a public purpose.’”

The funds will pay for transportation to work sites, technology for logistics, tools, health and safety supplies, printing and mailing, photography, t-shirts and miscellaneous costs.

Spotlight on Local Non Sibi Day Efforts

Non Sibi Day is September 15! Projects are being developed throughout the Merrimack Valley and Greater Boston area to involve students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents.

More than 20 individual projects have been designated to date.

Campus-based volunteers will be asked to specify their area of interest, or cause, when they sign up. These areas include AIDS, Animals and Wildlife, Community Improvement and Development, Diversity, Education and Literacy, Emergency and Safety, Environment, and Food and Nutrition.

A sample of area projects to date include the following:

• in Lawrence—Spicket River Cleanup, meal preparation and service at Cor Unum, Project Bikes;
• in five Boston area sites—Food Project, including food harvesting;
• in Andover—sports clinics with varsity athletes for Lawrence youth, AVIS Reservation cleanup and environmental improvement, an Addison Gallery collaborative project on youth identity with Lawrence High School.

Get involved! Don’t forget to check the website often for updates on projects forming in your area.