Non Sibi Goes Global

Phillips Academy launches an annual international day of service on September 15

April 17, 2007 — An extraordinary effort to put new muscle behind the meaning of Andover’s motto, non sibi, is underway. Thousands of members of the Phillips Academy family—students, alumni, faculty, staff, parents, and friends—will take part in community service projects around the globe on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2007. From Togo, West Africa to New York City, from Korea to Lawrence, Mass., far-flung Andover volunteers will join together in a wide variety of projects to give back to their communities.

“Non Sibi Day will be a celebration of the tradition of service that is fundamental to our private school with a public purpose,” says Head of School Barbara Landis Chase. “We are not only a community of participants in service, but leaders in programs that advance the greater good.”

To explore possibilities for service and sign up to participate, members of the Andover community may visit a Web site created by Phillips Academy in partnership with AngelPoints, a worldwide leader in on-demand corporate responsibility management.  The firm’s founder and CEO, Andy Mercy ’88, has donated AngelPoints’ vast electronic capacity to organize the ambitious project. Once logged onto the Non Sibi Day Web site, www.andover.edu/nonsibiday, visitors can view community service projects being organized in their geographic areas and can register to participate. New locations, projects and planners are being added every day. The committee hopes to have the majority of projects identified by the middle of May.

Sample opportunities for service range from feeding the homeless in Chicago, to river cleanup in Lawrence, to a family nutrition workshop in West Africa, to a book drive in Connecticut for a Tibetan orphanage. Volunteers are also encouraged to create their own projects in areas of service in which they have an interest. In addition to visiting the Non Sibi Day Web site, interested volunteers may call 1-866-NOT-SELF, or email nonsibi@andover.edu.

The full day of service is a cooperative venture led by the Community Service Program, the Office of Community and Multicultural Development (CAMD), the Alumni Council, the Office of Alumni Affairs, and Parents of Students of Phillips Academy. Tom Beaton ’73, chair of the steering committee, says the goal “is to unite thousands of Andover family members in a commitment to the spirit of non sibi, performing acts of kindness for the common good and making a positive impact on thousands of lives in every corner of the globe.”

Alumni Trustee and President of the Alumni Council Peter Hetzler M.D. ’72, also serves on the steering committee. He says, “Non Sibi Day inaugurates a new tradition for Andover, where public and community service have always been so integral to the educational mission.” Andover graduates have a long and distinguished history of serving less fortunate populations and taking on public leadership and responsibility. Plans call for Non Sibi Day to become an annual event on the Andover calendar.

Members of the steering committee—which is composed of students, faculty, staff alumni and parents—have been meeting since the fall of 2006 to organize the day-long event. Students will be bussed to locations in the Merrimack Valley and the greater Boston area. The various projects will mix alumni and students across many decades in an inter-generational effort