Community Service
Community Service
Our students learn how to be involved and make a difference. They have multiple opportunities to explore character building service through volunteerism with the Special Olympics, American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, military veterans, and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. Students also regularly volunteer at local soup kitchens and nursing homes.
Avon Outreach
Avon Outreach is a community service club that over 75% of the student body participates in – even though there is no community service requirement at Avon. Those committed students who accumulate more than 20 hours of community service throughout the year are awarded a community service rosette to wear proudly on the lapel of their school jacket.
The Woodwell Leadership Award
The Woodwell Leadership Award is offered to an exemplary rising junior at Avon who demonstrates potential for community service and leadership. The Woodwell Award was initiated by Al O’Connor ’75, in memory of fellow classmate and friend Richard H.”Woody” Woodwell ’75, who lost his life in the terrorist attack on September 11th. The recipient of the award has the opportunity to attend the Outward Bound School program of his choice.
Calendar
Relay For Life
Each spring the Avon community partners with Miss Porters School to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. The Village Green becomes the relay course filled with students, families, and survivors. Join us on May 6, 2017 for the next Relay For Life.
Special Olympics
For the past decade, Avon Old Farms School has partnered with the Farmington Valley Special Olympics to not only provide a space for the local organization to practice in, but to give an opportunity for students to experience what it is like to help others.
Community Farm
Named by our founder in the 1920s, volunteering at Sub-Edge Farm has been a tradition for Avon since the start. Today, our students collect pre-consumer food scraps from the Refectory for the farm animals. Boys also perform agricultural services weekly.
Soup Kitchen
Our students volunteer at Hands On Hartford, a program that serves neighbors in need in the areas of food, housing, and economic security. By engaging with people from all walks of life, our boys experience valuable service interactions and volunteer opportunities.
Habitat for Humanity
We volunteer time through Habitat for Humanity, a volunteer organization that helps construct decent houses with future homeowner families around the Hartford area. Homeowners and volunteers build houses under the supervision of master craftsmen.
Push Ups for Patriots
Each year Avon's Athletic Director Major John Bourgault leads the Pushups for Patriots event to benefit the Semper Fi Fund. Aside from hundreds of thousands of pushups banked, the group has raised thousands of dollars to support wounded veterans and their families.
Hands On Hartford's Toy Shoppe
Avon's student council hosts a series of events throughout the fall semester to raise money for our Toy Shoppe initiative, started more than 30 years ago. Students raise thousands of dollars to be used to buy hundreds of toys, which are then delivered to Hands on Hartford, providing toys to children in the Hartford area.
JDRF Walk
Each year, Avonians utilized their one day of unstructured classes to travel to the local JDRF Walk event and support their fellow classmates, teachers, family and friends who are living with juvenile diabetes. Students sell paper sneakers, host a 'jersey day' and a variety of other activities year to year to raise funds for the walk.
American Red Cross Blood Drive
The American Red Cross's Connecticut Chapter has come to depend upon Avon Old Farms School's annual blood drive. With hundreds of students and faculty filling up all available time slots weeks in advance of the drive, our efforts help preserve hundreds of lives.