Tower School Receives Service Awards

The following press release was issued by Tower School's Director of Communications

students were recently recognized for their commitment to community service by the Parents of Independent Schools Network.

The awards are given based on a community service project’s creativity and originality, its span of ongoing service, and its use of materials that are handmade rather than purchased. Tower’s projects stem from the school’s commitment to a culture that encourages students to be thoughtful, contributing members of the community.

Tower received awards for the following projects:

Fifth graders ran a clothing drive for Cradles to Crayons, a local organization that supports homeless and in-need children. Students visited the organization to deliver the clothing and help clean and organize the shoe and toy areas.

The Harrington Readers program is in its fifth year at Tower. Eighth graders travel each Friday during their study hall and lunch to the Harrington School in Lynn. The group spends time reading and doing activities in English and Spanish with first graders.

The school’s Knitting Club made squares for a blanket that was donated to the local organization Knitting For Angels, which provides handmade goods to children around the world. Students also created “comfort squares” for the Hospice of the North Shore. These soft squares are placed in a basket in the chapel at the hospice house in Danvers, and anyone who seeks comfort and solace there is able to take one.

For the fourth year in a row Tower has added a new “ingredient” to its longstanding monthly service visit at the soup kitchen My Brother’s Table in Lynn. Each spring, sixth graders and their kindergarten buddies plant herbs in Tower’s Learning Garden at Tower. In the fall, the herbs are harvested by the eighth graders, who use them in a meal for guests at the soup kitchen.

Now in its second year, the organization Soles4Souls provides footwear to needy people around the globe. Sixth graders spearheaded a shoe drive, and during spring break Spanish teacher Jaclyne Ainlay traveled to Peru to deliver them in person.

For the fourth consecutive year, Tower sixth graders worked with the Marblehead Conservancy to support the health of the local natural environment. In addition to weekly invasive plant removal, mature saplings that had been planted in Tower’s tree garden were replanted by Conservancy volunteers in areas of town previously ravaged by invasive species. Students then replenished the tree farm in Tower’s Learning Garden with baby saplings. Sixth graders also planted flower bulbs to mark entrances to trails in the neighborhood.