When parents and staff are asked to name the remarkable aspects of our school, one word that is frequently mentioned is “community.” The school community is warm, welcoming and inclusive, and frequently springs to action when need arises both among our school families and in our community at large. It is not uncommon to find room parents organizing meals for a family who has just welcomed a new baby or experienced a medical crisis.

In addition, outreach (or service to the larger community) is a hallmark of our school and is integrated into the curriculum at various levels. Some examples include:

In Lower Elementary:

• Students assemble Sleepy Snack Sacks for Safe Passage, and personal care friendship bags for the Red Cross.
• Students visit the Calvin Coolidge Nursing home twice per year to deliver valentines and share poems and songs.
• Students knit scarves for residents of the Northampton Cot Shelter.
• Students create holiday placemats for the Meals on Wheels program.

In Upper Elementary:

• Students collect pledges for an annual 8.5-mile walk from Amherst to the school along the bike trail to support an organization of their choosing. Over the past three years, the class has raised over $1000 for each of their designated recipients, Friends of Children, The Kestral Trust, and Casa Latina.

Whole School:

• The staff initiated and continues to be involved in “Extreme Makeover: Gerena” in which donated items from staff and parents were used to decorate the staff room at the Gerena School in Springfield, a public school currently undergoing conversion to Montessori.
• Classrooms take turns making nutritious soup for the Manna Meals program, which provides hot soup to those in need.
• Every June, the school holds a food drive for the Northampton Survival Center summer lunch program.
• The school participates in a perpetual book drive to collect new and barely-used books for students at the Zanetti Montessori School, a public school in Springfield.
• The school organizes semi-annual winter clothing drives for the Northampton Survival Center.
• A team of staff and parents participates annually in the Northampton Adult Spelling Bee to support the Northampton Education Foundation.

As special circumstances arise, our community comes forth to respond. Past projects have included backpacks for students affected by Hurricane Katrina, and a monetary donation for Tsunami victims.