Avon Alumni Continue Service Work in College

Avon Old Farms School's mission is to be the best school for boys by cultivating young men of integrity who honor wisdom, justice, service, and the pursuit of truth. Two young alumni who were especially dedicated to the service component of our mission have continued their good work since leaving Avon's campus. They recently reached out to share their current project. 

Before Jack Eschert '19 graduated Avon, he was known around campus for his winter clothing drives to collect items for a local women's shelter. He often made announcements at Morning Meeting and annually shared with the community how grateful the shelter was for our community donations. As a graduating senior, Jack spoke about how he wanted to continue the work he did through his charity, Helping Hands for CT, once he arrived college.

Jack enrolled at Middlebury College, where he reconnected with fellow AOF alumnus Ryan Ashe '17. There, this fall they established a food drive to benefit a local non-profit in Addison County, Vermont, called the Charter House Coalition—an organization that provides basic food and housing needs to those less fortunate.

"This fall, I ran a canned and non-perishable food drive on campus with Ryan's help to support the Charter House," Jack wrote. "This organization relies on students and volunteers (normally of an older demographic) for support. My work addressed the food insecurity gap created by the COVID-19 pandemic."

This drive served as Jack's charity's pilot project: he plans on launching Helping Hands as a student run club this year at Middlebury—just like he had done at Avon.

"Ryan is an officer in the DREAM Foundation club, a mentoring organization on campus that pairs college students with youth from affordable housing neighborhoods," explained Jack. "Ryan offered to help me with my initiative when he first saw the all-school emails announcing my drive; he was very important in helping spread the word amongst the upperclassmen about my drive and assisted with the delivery."

We applaud these young men for their continued service to their local community and for showcasing how real the brotherhood at Avon, and beyond, truly is.