Family Promise Club Adds Service Opportunity to Club Fair
Rivers students are an incredibly industrious bunch and nowhere is that more evident than at the annual Club Fair, which was held on Friday, September 15. With tables spread around the perimeter of Kraft Dining Hall, club leaders make the case to interested students why their particular club is the one they should attend during their lunch block on Tuesday or Thursday.
On Friday morning, the club leaders took turns reading a brief description of their club to the entire Upper School population. Long-running clubs like Red Key, Model UN, Speech/Debate, and Latin Club were joined by newer offerings like DECA, Football Analytics, Venture Capital Club, and Family Promise.
“Every year I am more and more impressed by the creativity and initiative of the students to identify something they are interested in and creating a club that supports that passion,” Assistant Head of School James Long said.
Family Promise is one such club. Started by Sarah Bargamian ’18 and Stephanie Daley ’19, the club’s goal is to bring the mission of Family Promise to Rivers and support the organization in its efforts to combat homelessness in the Metrowest region.
“Family Promise houses families in churches throughout Metrowest – it isn’t religious at all, but those are the sites that are available,” Stephanie said. “I volunteered with them over the summer as a ‘teen helper’ with the little kids so their parents could have a chance to relax and unwind.”
Stephanie was introduced to Family Promise last year while working on her RISE Project alongside Sarah, who served as her group’s RISE Mentor. For their RISE Day project, Stephanie and her group made a meal for one of the families at Family Promise.
Their goal for the first few months of the club is to have some staff members from Family Promise come into club meetings and train Rivers students so that they can both volunteer on their own time and participate in a club-wide program before the end of the year, such as setting up a table with activities at one of Family Promise’s events.
“There are some incredible statistics about homelessness in Massachusetts, like the fact that the average age of a homeless person is eight years old and that there are a lot of students who are homeless. It’s something that you don’t really think about and we want people to be aware of,” Stephanie said.
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