On Wednesday, Dec. 3, the Stanley Elementary School in Waltham hosted its annual Stanley Family Night. The event is set up like a carnival, and various organizations and clubs from Brandeis run different booths that the students of the elementary school and their families walk around and participate in. These booths range from ones focusing on sports activities to ones focusing on the arts and even a photo booth. This year over 25 different clubs came to participate in this event, including the Fashion Design Club, Manginah, MLK & Friends, Student Events, Quidditch, Harry Potter Alliance and Brandeis Football Club.
In addition, volunteers at the event included members of Waltham Group’s Big Siblings and Junior Brandeis Achievers (JBA). These organizations work with the Stanley Elementary School community throughout the year. Brandeis Big Siblings has a Lunch-Time Program at the elementary school, where Brandeis “big siblings” meet with their “little siblings” during their lunchtime every week for an hour. JBA works with the elementary students after school. One day a week, the volunteers provide a variety of clubs and activities that the students can sign up for based on their interests. Some of the activities include writing, art, sports and dance programs. As a whole, more than 200 people came to volunteer at this year’s Stanley Fun Night.
This event is produced by the Clubs in Service committee, whose members worked tirelessly to make it possible. Clubs in Service is a partnership between three Brandeis organizations: Waltham Group, the Student Union and the Department of Community Service. It is an initiative with a primary focus to encourage all other clubs and organizations on campus to engage in a more direct way with the Waltham community. They help to foster a relationship between organizations that are not traditionally service-oriented with those who are more involved with service projects. Some events that they broadcast to the campus organizations are these one-time service opportunities through Waltham Group. Many students, including coordinators of Waltham Group, volunteered to help make the Stanley Family Night come to fruition.
The students of Stanley Elementary School enjoy this event the most, says Ariana Schachne ’15, head facilitator and a member of the Clubs in Service Committee. According to her, the most popular booths this year were Quidditch and the cheerleading club’s popcorn stand. The elementary students were also very excited to take photos with Ollie the Owl in the photo booth.
Schachne would like to thank all of the incredible and committed volunteers and all of the support they received from Brandeis University as a whole. “Also,” she says, “we could not have done this event without the support from the Stanley School.” As for the next Stanley Family Night, Schachne hopes that they can get even more clubs involved and have more students and families attend. If anyone is interested in getting involved, she encourages them to like their Facebook page, “Clubs in Service,” for more announcements.
