ESSO Starts Off the Year with Peace, Family and a Cleaner Environment

September 30, 2009

ESSO volunteers manned the childrens booth at Peace Day Exeter. Here, an Exonian hula hoops with a young friend.

Peace signs were everywhere at Peace Day ExeterExeter Social Service Organization is in high gear. Already this academic year, ESSO has hosted 3 major events – Peace Day Exeter, Big Sib/Little Sib get-together and Seabrook Beach Cleanup.

Peace Day Exeter

Wonderful weather, a great message and lots of hard work from student and adult volunteers made for a very successful Peace Day Exeter on September 19. Hundreds of people attended the outdoor event, held at Exeter’s Swasey Parkway. The festival hosted speakers, panel discussions, bands and activities for children.

An estimated 50 Exonians volunteered at Peace Day ExeterFor Bianca ’11, one of ESSO’s Peace Day organizers, the guiding objective was to make sure that “Peace Day broadens the community’s view of the culture around them, and the simple things that they can do in order to make the community a better place.”

Bianca started working with event sponsors from across Exeter last year. “I think the most challenging but engaging part of planning Peace Day Exeter was working with the town to collaborate and share ideas about what activities and events would be taking place during the time allotted,” she said.

The childrens booth at Peace Day Exeter was run entirely by ESSO volunteers. Bianca, who was responsible for setting up and planning the booth, worked with other ESSOnians to paint faces and help children create musical instruments, get into the swing with hula hoops, make crowns and other crafts, and decorate flags and banners. Laurie Loosigian, ESSO community service coordinator, estimates that over 300 children participated in the childrens activities.

Big Sib/Little Sib

This Big Sib/Little Sib pair had a great time at Peace Day ExeterESSO’s Big Sib/Little Sib program brings together “big sibs” from Exeter with younger adopted children in the Seacoast area. Pairs meet monthly on Sunday afternoons. “The point of the program is for the big sibs to be role models for these adopted children,” explains Katie ’10, a club co-head of Big Sibs/Little Sibs.

For the first monthly get-together in September, Exeter’s big sibs took their young partners to Peace Day Exeter, where ESSO volunteers were running a childrens booth of exciting activities. “I loved seeing how happy the kids looked after leaving Peace Day Exeter,” said Jenna ’10, another Big Sib/Little Sib leader. “Many of them were wearing decorations around their heads and proudly holding the crafts they had just made.”

This year, 130 Exonians have volunteered to participate in Big Sib/Little Sib. More than 90 Exeter students are currently paired up with younger sibs as part of the program.

“Look at me!” says this hula-hooping youngster to 2 Exonians at Peace Day ExeterKatie and Jenna both became big sibs in prep year. They stayed paired with the same little sibs until this year, when their work as program co-heads caused them to change focus. “My old little sib, Julia, and I were together for 3 years and we continue to meet outside of the meeting times,” says Jenna of her experiences as a surrogate sibling. “I have really enjoyed watching Julia grow over the years and I hope we can continue to keep in touch after I leave the Academy.”

Katie feels that an Exeter big sib can help a younger child come into his/her own, as she observed with her little sib. “She became less shy and more confident, and I think/hope that this positive change has something to do with the activities we did with each other – which included spending time with other sib pairs, playing games, and chatting about school and other common interests. I also enjoyed being another person she could talk to about her friends, her interest in horseback riding and anything else that may have been on her mind.”

Beach Cleanup

A group of 6 students and 2 faculty traveled to nearby Seabrook Beach on September 19 to remove debris from the coastline. They removed 33 pounds of trash, including plastic items, cigarette butts and filters, rope, glass bottles, food wrappers, strapping bands and beverage cans.

ESSO has “adopted” a stretch of Seabrook Beach in conjunction with the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Exeter. ESSO sends volunteers monthly to clear rubbish. In addition to the smaller items, volunteers also collected items too-heavy-to-lift such as nets and lobster traps. These will be removed by the Blue Ocean Society, which works with ESSO and other volunteer organizations to keep the Seacoast clear of debris.

ESSO volunteers head back to Seabrook Beach this coming Sunday, October 4.

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See photos of Peace Day Exeter...