MLK Day of Service 2023: Collection Drives and Service Projects

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we have no classes on Monday, January 16. We will offer the opportunity for students and families to gather together for service projects from 10am-12pm on campus. In addition, we will host collection drives to benefit local organizations. 

Collection Drives

Drop off by 10am on Monday, Jan 16.

• Sign up to purchase items for Food for Others Power Pack Program (P3) which sends weekend backpack meals home with students who rely on school-provided meals. Drop off at WWS no later than 10am on Monday 1/16 so that packs can be assembled that morning.

Drop off Jan 16-20.

• Food Drive in partnership with Holy Comforter - Saint Cyprian Roman Catholic Church (Stacey Kornegay's church) to stock their local food pantry, helping DC neighbors in need. View needed items.
• Grocery Gift Cards - WWS has long supported the Samaritan Ministry of Greater Washington. They welcome donations of $25 grocery gift cards to Giant, Safeway, Walmart, or Target.
• Essential Clothing & Supplies - Assist refugee families by donating to the Migrant Solidarity Network, 20 local nonprofits organized under a single umbrella to assist refugees arriving at Union Station. View needed items.

Service Projects

Work together on Monday, Jan 16 from 10am-12pm. If you are not able to join us, you can also make these items at home and drop them at school before 12pm on Monday. 

Make blankets and hats for distribution to local shelters and medical facilities in partnership with a local MD group associated with Warm Up America.

We will provide fleece for blankets that require no sewing. You can also knit or crochet squares for blankets or hats (preemie to adult) with any pattern you like, but all items must be made from acrylic yarn. Blankets can be sewed, fringed or tied.

• If you plan to knit or crochet, please bring needles and/or a hook.
• If you can, please bring fabric scissors to participate in this project. 
• Some yarn will be available or bring your own. Surplus clean acrylic yarn will be donated back to the group for future volunteer projects. 

Assemble weekend food packages for children with home food insecurity. We will assemble packages for the Food for Others Power Pack Program (P3) which sends weekend backpack meals home with roughly 3,500 students at 43 schools each week during the school year. Sign up in advance to bring individual items to the school by 10am Monday morning.

Participate in the "On the Same Page" program through the DC-based organization Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop. The organization will provide a selection of poems written by incarcerated people for attendees to read and provide feedback. This is a simple and powerful way to support their processes of self-awareness and change, and a valuable source of motivation and connection to the outside community. It is also a source of reflection and connection for the person giving the feedback. Approximately 95% of Free Minds members are African American and 4% are Latinx. The majority of Free Minds members were charged and incarcerated as adults when they were under 18. Art and drawing responses are also welcome and particularly appreciated by the authors.

Create cards to send some cheer and appreciation to our local first responders - the Glen Echo Fire & Rescue Squad, health care professionals, etc. 

Volunteers Needed

In addition to participants, we are looking for leaders for each of the craft projects on Monday (be here at 9:45am and assist others as needed with the activity). We also need assistance delivering the items afterwards to their local recipients - please sign up online or email Miriam Zarin if you are interested.

Thank you for your support! We look forward to gathering as a community on Monday, Jan 16 and collectively helping our neighbors in need.

On January 4, before returning to college, a group of recent WWS alums attended a lunchtime meeting with our current high school students. The main purpose of the visit was to offer insights about college life and share experiences of what life is like after WWS.

January

12/ Thursday

• Whole School Morning Tour, 9am

13/ Friday

• 12:30 Dismissal - Professional Development Day for Faculty

16/ Monday

• NO CLASSES - Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Service Projects at WWS, 10am-12pm (see above)

17/ Tuesday

• G11 SAT Prep, 2:05pm
• Trustees Council Meeting, 7pm (see below)

18/ Wednesday

• CG/LS Morning Tour, 9am
• G11 SAT Prep, 10:30am

19/ Thursday

• MS/HS Morning Tour, 9am
• G8 Evening with the High School, 7:30pm

21/ Saturday

• CG Open House, 10am

View the Calendar of School Days for the 2022-2023 School Year

Tuesday, Jan 17 at 7pm 

(open to the community 7-7:45pm)

WWS Trustees Council (TC) meetings are typically scheduled for the third Tuesday of every month of the school year in the WWS library. The first 45 minutes of the meeting is open to the community, and all are welcome to attend. During this portion of the meeting, we hear a comprehensive report from our Head of School/Faculty Chair that includes updates from the various administrative departments of the school as well as other pertinent information. The Parent Leadership Group (PLG) also shares updates from their work with the school community during this portion of the meeting. 

"Teaching in a World on Fire"

talk by David Barham (Visiting High School Teacher)

Thursday, Feb 2 at 7pm at WWS

Join us for a talk about Waldorf high school education and the worldwide Waldorf movement with David Barham. David recently completed the American Transcendentalists morning lesson block with the Class of 2023 at WWS. He has taught for 29 years in Waldorf grade and high school classes at Pine Hill Waldorf School & High Mowing School in Wilton, NH, at El Papalote in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and at Maine Coast Waldorf School in Freeport, Maine.

Now, David is no longer full-time in the classroom but serves as the Leader for the Northeast/Quebec region and on the Leadership Council of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA), and as of September, has become the Director of the Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program (WHiSTEP) through CfA. He writes, consults, mentors, and dreams of a world where more children and families have access to Waldorf education. His children all attended Waldorf schools and his wife, Kelly Marie, is the Faculty Chair at Acorn Hill.

WWS and the Undoing Racism Working Group are hosting an in-person Undoing Racism Workshop, led by PISAB at WWS

Saturday and Sunday, March 4-5, from roughly 9am-5pm.

The Undoing Racism Workshop (URW), created and offered by the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB), has been a proven change agent for over 40 years. It has come to be recognized as “the Gold Standard when it comes to supporting people to understand how racism dehumanizes all of us, and how it can be undone" (pisab.org). We’ve seen the URW’s impact powerfully evidenced in those of us who have participated in a virtual session and gather monthly to use it as the foundation for our anti-racism practice.

The full cost of the workshop is $515, and we have sponsorship funds available. We will try to coordinate childcare among attending families. 

Please contact Jesse Travis or Dini Rao at jessetravis@gmail.com or dinivrao@gmail.com for additional details.

Save the Date and Volunteers Needed for the WWS Spring Gala

Saturday, April 15

Top of the Town in Arlington, VA

Join us to help plan this elegant evening with live music and sumptuous food from Foxhall Catering where we raise important funds for the school.

Volunteers are needed to help with flowers, decorations, recruiting raffle and auction items, assembling class baskets, and more! Those that can, will gather weekly (likely a hybrid model so you can join us in person or via Zoom). Plenty of hands will also be needed outside of the weekly meetings. If you are interested in helping, please email Miriam.

Josie Bicknell ('20) recently presented research at the Atlantic Basin Conference on Chemistry (ABCChem) in Marrakech, Morocco, organized in part by the American Chemical Society.

With the theme of “Linking the World through Chemistry,” Josie shared work that aims to increase accessibility in STEM education by shifting the framework from focusing on student failure towards defining how institutions can better serve students in higher education STEM courses.

Grade 7 presented "Dragon of the Winds", a humorous Japanese folk tale.

Grade 6 treated our community to a circus performance. Circus studies build coordination, dexterity, balance, focus, and concentration.

Grade 11 started their study of Electricity & Magnetism.

• BigSis Portal - keep your contact information up to date!
• Current Health Policy - updated Aug 29, 2022.
• Lunch program info for current families in ParentSquare.
• Map of the pick up and drop off flow.
• Magnus Portal for student forms.
• Bulletin newsletters.

If you cannot find the information you are looking for on ParentSquare, please email your department coordinator/administrator:

• Children's Garden - Cecilia Berg-Benson
• Lower School - Christen Leonard 
• High School - Bonnie McClelland

Donate Extra Beeswax! 

Do you have any extra/unwanted modeling beeswax or leftover beeswax candles? The third grade is planning an event where we melt and clean the beeswax, and use it to create new candles. If you have some you'd like to pass along, please leave it at the front desk by January 27th.

Sounder Sleep System®: A course to transform your sleep (online)

from Alison Babil (WWS Alum Parent)

The Sounder Sleep System® uses simple, gentle movements to calm your nervous system and bring you from an alert state to a state of deep calm. Sounder Sleep draws upon the Feldenkrais® method and ancient Chinese medicine. What people are saying: "I am having AMAZING results from the Sounder Sleep System course!! I am falling asleep without sleep aids, and it is deep sleep. I feel great!" -- Joni B., Sounder Sleep System® class participant.

Six Wednesdays, via Zoom, January 11th - February 15, 6:30 - 7:45pm

For more information and to RSVP: Email Alison and send payment in the amount of $145 via one of these - Venmo: @Alison-Babil | Zelle: Alison Babil | PayPal

*A limited number of discounted slots available for those who need it. Email Alison to inquire.

*If you miss the first class and are interested, please email to join the rest of the series. Classes are recorded.

-------------------

Free Sounder Sleep Introduction (in person)

In person at the Potomac Massage Training Institute in Silver Spring

Friday, January 6, 6:30 - 8pm

Register | Learn More

Alison Babil, GCFP, LMT, is the owner of True North Healing. She is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner®, a certified Sounder Sleep System® instructor, certified in Soul Lightening Acupressure, and has been a licensed massage therapist for nearly 20 years. She works with clients in person and via Zoom, focusing on movement education, pain, and sleep.

Chesapeake BioDynamic Network: The Spiritual Nature of the Plant

A Talk by Biodynamic Farmer Stewart Lundy - Thursday, Jan 12, 7:30-9pm

Christian Community Parish House & Garden Grounds, 4221 Metzerott Rd in College Park, MD (next to U Md)

Stewart Lundy, along with his partner and wife, Natalie, farms 50 acres of land on a tiny peninsula in rural Virginia. For the past decade he has practiced biodynamics, and for the past eight years he has made and applied the biodynamic preparations. Stewart also works for The Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics. 

*Donations welcome

*Biodynamic Coffee will be on sale as a fundraiser for the Chesapeake BioDynamic Network 

*Stella Natura Biodynamic Planting Calendar will also be available

Thanks to the Anthroposophical Society of Greater Washington and the Christian Community of Washington-Baltimore for sponsoring this special talk.

Further info: Michael Judge, Mjudge2000@gmail.com

Helping Teenagers Though Music

From Leslie Brooks (WWS Parent)

Emma G, a colleague of mine, is a music coach, singer, and songwriter, and she has begun an initiative to help teenagers through music. Emma G's goal is to help young people live happier, healthier lives by staying connected with their parents and community.

Specifically, helping teenagers aged 13-18 with a 5-step process:

- Find their unique voice

- Step into their power

- Identify and overcome their struggles and anxiety

- Reduce their overwhelm to improve their studies

- Discover specific tools and language to reconnect with their loved ones & communities   

View Emma G's "Empowerment through Songwriting" newsletters on LinkedIn.

View her LinkedIn profile

Cello Lessons

Christopher Fiore (Suzuki Cello Teacher with Waldorf teaching experince) has openings for private lessons and group classes in Rockville.

(860)-888-4453

www.satoritalenteducation.com

Doctors on Plastics, Wireless and Heath 

From Theodora Scarato (WWS Parent)

An expert talk about what parents can do about endocrine disrupters and wireless is now available online with Dr. Hugh Taylor, MD (Chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Yale School of Medicine and president of American Society of Reproductive Medicine), Dr. Baldwin, and WWS parent Theodora Scarato. Stay tuned for more local webinars about environmental health. 

Published by the Washington Waldorf School

Copyright © 2023 All rights reserved

Picture of MLK Jr. photographed by Marion S. Trikosko, 1964. 

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