On an otherwise typical weekday, the Junior School Service Reps met in the Innovation Room to plan the Cold Weather Gear Drive, and the meeting was hijacked by three birds who flew in through an open window. Thanks to the ingenuity of our Junior school boys and the expertise of Mr. Mario and Mr. Comer, the birds finally round their way back to nature.
Each year the MBA Service Club and the Hockey Team volunteer many hours helping Nashvillians in need shop at The Last Minute Toy Store. This year our the store needed more than our time. Due to the coronavirus pandemic's increasing need and decreasing donations, they also needed toys. On November 23 and 24, the Service Club, led by Matthew Thayer, gathered a great load of toys for neighbors. Thank you for all who helped us make this a huge success!
Cold Weather Gear Drive
November 30 - January 15
Sponsored by the 7th & 8th Grades.
Today marks the beginning of the fourth annual MBA Cold Weather Gear Drive, benefiting Oasis Center, UniCycle and our new partner Blanket Nashville. Please encourage your advisees to bring in the following NEW or GENTLY used items to the hampers placed in your classrooms this morning:
Coats in Adult, Teen and Child Sizes
Winter Hats in Adult, Teen and Child Sizes
Gloves in Adult, Teen and Child Sizes
Jeans and Joggers in Adult, Teen and Child Sizes
Hoodies in Adult, Teen and Child Sizes
We also need the following items:
New Blankets
Hand and Foot Warmers
Gift Cards to 24-Hour Fast Food Restaurants ($10, $15, $20)
Gift Cards to Gas Stations
Chapstick
A record of donations should be kept each week on the logs attached to your hampers. Every Friday morning, please have someone from your advisory take your weekly log to Mrs. Haendel’s office for me to pick up. We will be doing prize drawings on Monday mornings, while school is in session, based on the names you report on the log.
Students and their families can also give online by visiting the Service Club Store at https://cold-weather-gear-drive-101248.square.site/. Boys should report the items they have “purchased” to you as well, and those donations should be recorded on the attached log.
Advisory Incentives: If your advisory earns 100% participation, you earn movie theater candy treat, date TBD. 100% advisory participation can be earned by members bringing items, keeping track of items donated on the advisory log-in sheet and/or by bagging donations in the bags provided and taking them to the closet in Massey Commons. In other words, an advisory can achieve 100% participation without each member bringing in an item. We want every boy to have an opportunity to participate.
The advisory who donates the most items wins a homemade pancake breakfast.
Individual Incentives: For every five items a boy brings, he gets his name put in a weekly drawing for one of three weekly Snack Break Fast Pass (skip to the front of the line to claim one free item worth up to $2). For every five items a boy brings, he is also entered into a one-time drawing for a grand prize or 1 Snack Break Fast Pass per week for the remainder of the school year!
Prizes will be awarded at the end of the drive in January. Most importantly, we get to help homeless youth and children in Nashville.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions, and thanks for your support.
Covid can't keep us from our Buddies! Saturday mornings = Zoom parties. Thanks to the Spellmans and others for keeping this new tradition going! We also have extra parties when occasions call. Here we are celebrating with Matt on his birthday.
COVID-19 has brought both challenges and opportunities for growth to the boys of the MBA Service Club. The needs of our community partners are greater than ever, but the traditional ways of meeting those needs simply do not work during a global pandemic. Barriers and complications have not stopped the Service Club. We simply have put on our thinking caps, engaged our creativity and continued to move forward.
Last March, the tornado put an abrupt end to our ability to prepare and serve our monthly meal at Loaves & Fishes, our nearly 40-year-old partnership with Catholic Charities. With the virus hitting hard right after the physical destruction of the neighborhoods surrounding Holy Name Church, we have not been able to return since. In the meantime, hunger and homelessness issues have grown, and we have continued our support. What began initially with sack lunches has turned into a catered meal prepared monthly by our friends at Eastwood Deli Company. While the building remains closed, the Service Club has sponsored delicious, seasonally appropriate take out lunches. Recently, to make sure the boys remain engaged, we have been packing and providing provisions bags to go along with the meals. Socks, masks, nutritious snacks, special treats, toothbrushes, notes of encouragement and more have been included.
The tornado and virus also disrupted the weekly tutoring program at East Park Community Center, but they did not stop the Service Club. With the prevalence of online school, tutoring needs are greater than ever. Saturday Scholars is our new online tutoring program for students around Nashville. We pair students who need help with an MBA boy, and they meet one-on-one every Saturday morning via Zoom, Google Meet or FaceTime. Through the online platform, the Service Club has expanded the number of students and schools served. To learn more, visit us at https://www.montgomerybell.edu/programs/overview-of-student-life/service-club/community-education.
Best Buddies has continued to be active with weekly Saturday morning Zoom parties, virtual birthday parties, and more. On Saturday, October 31, the Service Club hosted a drive-through parade as part of the Best Buddies Friendship Walk. The Parade of Heroes included MBA boys dressed as superheroes, decorated cars and more. Thanks to David Wilson (MBA ‘98) for loaning us amazing costumes! Students of Mr. Kelly or classmates of Robert Sawyer may be interested in a competition the boys cooked up to see which one of THEM would don a superhero costume! The boys voted with their money, and Mr. Sawyer “won,” and the student leaders raised $625 for Best Buddies.
Second Harvest: The MBA community again set a new record with Second Harvest donations during homecoming week, and the Service Club followed up with sorting sessions at the Second Harvest warehouse. On Saturday, October 24, fifteen students and two faculty members spent three hours working to get hungry Nashvillians fed. Additional events are being scheduled for later this semester and the spring.
Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer: Losing the opportunity to COVID for our traditional 4 Quarters for Research during this football season, the Service Club held our first ever Outdoor Movie Night on October 24. The ticket price included a COVID-safe showing of Pirates of the Caribbean, all-you-can-eat popcorn and candy, a blanket and an MBA mask compliments of the Mother’s Club. After braving the rain and other roadblocks, the event was a huge success, raising $1500 for Rally.
Urban Housing Solutions: On Saturday, September 26, a small group of MBA students and faculty gathered to prepare dinner for our friends at Mercury Court. While our Last Saturday Dinners program typically is served white tablecloth style to seated guests, the Service Club focused on equally as delicious take-out dinners.
Past Preservers: Past Preservers, the history related service project, has been spent several Saturdays working around Nashville. While working on the grounds and otherwise supporting Fort Negley, Glen Leven, Shy’s Hill and other spots, the boys serve and learn about and explore history sites at the same time.
Just.Wash: Over Homecoming Week, the Service Club extended our relationship with Justice Industries by bringing Just.Wash to MBA for the first time, offering its mobile car washing service on campus. Just.Wash and our ongoing collaboration with Just.Glass bring employment and dignity “to those who find it difficult to obtain and retain work because of barriers, such as criminal history, addiction recovery, mental illness, domestic abuse, and generational poverty.”
Komen Foundation More Than Pink Walk: COVID, Homecoming and the SAT took away our ability to participate in this year’s More Than Pink Walk on its scheduled day, but the Service Club did not rest! The boys hosted our own COVID-friendly More Than Pink Walk at the MBA track on October 10. Despite the barriers, including constant rain, the Service Club raised almost $3000 for breast cancer research.
Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital: On PSAT Day, October 14, the Service Club worked with Seniors and their 7th grade little brothers to complete almost 400 craft kits for the patients at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. Because of COVID, the patients cannot leave their rooms for the community activity area, so the staff brings the fun to them. Each kit contains everything they need to complete one of six different craft projects, and we were happy to do our part in making the kids’ days a little brighter. In January, the Service Club will host our Second Annual Montgomery Bell Miracle dance marathon to benefit the Children’s Hospital.
Mending Hearts: On PSAT Day the boys also put together Happy Halloween treat bags for the ladies at Mending Hearts. Since we cannot celebrate the holidays in person with them this year, we wanted to send our love another way. Each bag contained a unique fabric mask (as sold by the Service Club), candy, spiced tea mix, black and orange halloween necklaces and more Halloween treats. On November 7, the Service Club will have a work day on the Mending Hearts campus, putting to work their raking, sweeping, trimming and other outdoor skills.
Safe Vote Kits: On October 28, the Service Club joined hands with the girls at www.safevotekits.com to put together kits full of tools to help voters feel safe at the polls. Hand sanitizer, a mask, a pair of gloves and a mint made up the almost 750 kits we assembled on Wednesday morning.
Several more projects are in the works for the remainder of the semester. Here are a few.
Veteran’s Day Projects for Task Force Dagger, Operation Stand Down and Mending Hearts: The Service Club will be raising money for Task Force Dagger in support of our wounded Veterans. Hats, shirts, water bottles and other gear will be for sale November 6 - 13. During that same time period we will be collecting gently used business attire for the men and women at Operation Stand Down and Mending Hearts. Many of our friends do not have appropriate clothing for interviews and work, and we hope the MBA community will help us fill in some of these gaps.
Cold Weather Gear Drive for UniCycle and Oasis Center: Beginning in late November, the 7th and 8th grade students, led by their Junior School Service Representatives, will host their annual cold weather gear collection. Coats, gloves, hand warmers, gift cards and more will be gathered throughout the school and delivered to Nashville’s homeless youth. Exact needs will be announced at a later date.
Holiday Bazaar and Gift Wrapping Services: The Service Club raises money to support all of our projects and receives no direct funding from the school. As COVID took away most of our fundraising sources, like bake sales and reserved parking for football games, we have gotten creative in closing some of the gaps created by those losses. We are happy to join forces again with the MBA Mother’s Club by participating in their Holiday Bazaar on December 5. Since March, we have sold unique, comfortable and CDC-compliant face masks made by a family company in Chicago, and we will feature new patterns at the market. We will also be selling honey collected by the MBA Beekeeping Club, hot chocolate kits with MBA marshmallows. Christmas tree removal services and a variety of alternative holiday gifts perfect for the person who has it all. Additionally, the Service Club will offer gift wrapping services on December 5 and December 19, and on other days by appointment. Get your gifts wrapped beautifully in exchange for a donation to the Service Club!
For more information about the MBA Service Club, please visit our website at https://www.montgomerybell.edu/programs/overview-of-student-life/service-club or contact the Annie B. Williams at annie.b.williams@montgomerybell.edu or 615-369-5333.
