As we move towards the holidays, we must first pass through the arbor to this wonderland of turkeys and snow, a little tradition known as Heritage Day. This landmark of the Seabury culture is not only a day when you get a chance to brave a frozen ground covered in horse manure or take a detour to Munchers for some cinnamon rolls, but it also serves as a reminder of what the feasts and gifts are really about: love in action.
Sophomore Izzy Gonzalez explains the importance of service, saying, “Some people here kind of take this day as a bad day, but when you think about it, you’re going to help other people and get stuff done and make yourself a better person and make the community a better place.” She also shares that her personal “favorite was when we went to the Lawrence River Trails in North Lawrence, and we got to cut an invasive species of plant, and then we took this blue dye and we put it on the top so that it couldn’t spread anymore.”
Many advisings enjoy working outdoors, including the advising group of senior Truman Sizemore, who shares a fascinating encounter, saying, “Last year, we went to a farm and we did work, and there was this pig there named Truman.”
Similarly, faculty member Elena Buckner also took her advising to work on a farm. “Going to Midnight Farm was maybe the most memorable … [When we were] cleaning out the trash pit, it was like a time capsule of the 1970s [and] 80s. I’m talking like Coke bottles, linoleum funneling, [and] we think there was probably a trailer home or something there that … just sank into the garden. There was [a] water heater that we dug out of the ground. So every moment that day was like, ‘Look what I found!’ and that was really fun,” she says.
Unlike these advisings, others take on some more traditional chores. Eighth grader Birdie Powers says, “Last year, I [was] pretty new to Patterson Advising, and we went to this old woman’s house, and we raked leaves in the lawn and basically talked to her the entire day.”
Likewise, junior Alex Barker and his advising helped with “unloading boxes for a nonprofit that helps homeless families get back on their feet,” and he also loved cleaning the yards: “There were a lot of leaves, and I think Gabe tripped [on the] pile … It was my first year when that happened, but [we] became really good friends after that,” he says.
Gonzalez also noted the friendship-building aspect, expressing that “spending that amount of time with each other [and] doing something good for other people just brought us closer, [as well as] playing games on the way there too.”
Seventh grader Chase Downing echoes this sentiment: “We told stories in the car on the way there. It was a very long ride. It was a good bonding experience,” he says.
Buckner agrees, saying, “It’s easier to build a relationship with people when you’re simultaneously doing something and have time to chat. So I think that’s good, and I think it also is one of the first times here … [that] some of the older and the other advisees [get] to really spend a lot of unstructured time together.” She also shares some insights regarding how this unique event came about: “Seabury was literally built on an old abandoned property that was falling apart. And when we moved here, … [it provided an opportunity] for the students there wanting to hark back to that origin.”
Sizemore shares this opinion, saying that Heritage Day is about “giving back to the community and selflessness and helping other people, [and] the school does a really good job with promoting [this].”
Similarly, Barker points out a valuable lesson: “We need to show humility and help the less fortunate … We enjoy helping each other, and I meet everyone in our community, even people that are down on their luck, so I feel like that really shows [what] community service [is about],” he says.
Finally, Buckner says, “I think it is kind of what’s at the heart of what makes Seabury. It’s that willingness to try new things, to assume every student has something to contribute to every organization that we’re going to visit; that strong belief that academics are important, but the whole person and the whole community are important too, so important that we should take an entire day out of class to do that; and then [it’s] sort of the same idea of the lunch table rotations, but the staff are right in there with students. It’s across grades. It’s the whole school. We all do this together, and we’re all better for it.”
