The chocolatey smell of steaming hot cocoa swirled through the Community Commons as KO students and faculty walked through the doors. Approaching the stand, people are gathered around a big table, buzzing like bees. Whether pouring hot drinks into cups, making their own bracelets, or donating to the cause, everyone was contributing and participating in their own way. What began as a small idea quickly grew into an official collaborative event: a creative Lead and Learn fundraiser that brought both teachers and students together for fun, cocoa, and awareness about food insecurity.
During Lead and Learn classes, instructors taught students about food insecurity and helped them collaborate with a team to develop a related project. It all started when students were assigned to different small groups, and those groups proceeded to plan a food insecurity awareness-related project they wanted to execute over the span of multiple weeks. Due to the limited number of class periods to work, some projects were not carried out.
As a student who went through Lead and Learn, I learned that the program is important and necessary to have as a part of the curriculum. “The Lead and Learn curriculum is about helping to teach students what leadership looks like,” Director of College Counselling and Co-Director of the Leadership Center Jamie Silver explained. “Our goal in it is particularly and specifically about service learning and leadership, and we did not want people to just sit in a classroom.” Since the sophomores visited the Levo International site earlier this school year, facilitators decided to focus this year’s student Lead and Learn projects on food insecurity in the greater Hartford area.
The range of different projects planned by the various groups shows how the program pushes students to take the initiative in actually designing meaningful and important projects rather than just talking about leadership in the classroom. The Bracelets and Hot Cocoa event, hosted by sophomores Emma Davis, Anwita Premish, Racheal Segal, and Jordan Veseskis, was one example of what the curriculum aimed to accomplish. They all discovered how compassion and innovation can bring a school community together to help.
Ms. Silver, the group’s specific Lead and Learn teacher, explained how the students who organised the event were engaged every class, arranged their supplies, and followed through with bringing awareness to their event. “I would say what made it successful is they had this vision of what they could do,” Ms. Silver said. ‘They had string, and they went out and bought hot cocoa. And so that was the thing they could do. They then had to be flexible and pivoted. They made signs, and they hung those signs up around campus to show its visibility. So they really did the project fully.”
The event was a fundraiser that aimed to raise awareness about food insecurity in West Hartford at Kingswood Oxford. In total, the group raised $167, and all profits went to the Food Rescue US non-profit organization in Stamford, CT. What started as a creative twist on a bake sale or food drive ended up as an event that benefited both the community at KO and West Hartford.
This Lead and Learn group decided to center their project on serving hot cocoa and laying out string bracelet material by trying to have an alternative to a common food drive. “We were trying to come up with a more fun idea to sell things that’s more creative than a bake sale, because a lot of bake sales seem to be happening,” Emma shared. “So we thought of hot cocoa and bracelets because it just seemed like a targeted audience.” Racheal added that incorporating the cocoa was a good idea to persuade a lot of people, especially students, to attend and donate. “People were definitely interested because of the cocoa; we sold out pretty quickly of the cups, at least,” Racheal said. “I mean, underclassmen can’t drive, and kids love food, so selling cocoa on top of bracelets was a pretty smart idea.”
The planning only took two Lead and Learn classes, so they had to persevere and cooperate in a short amount of time. To promote the event, they had to send multiple emails to the whole school, make an announcement during assembly, remind students during their own classes, and hang custom posters all around the school. They also asked a couple of faculty members for help to ensure their event was well planned and ready. “Besides Ms. Silver, who was our teacher for Lead and Learn, we also talked to Mrs. Baker to help us put a slide in the announcements, and to make sure there was a table for us in the Community Commons,” Jordan said.
The fundraiser officially took place on Tuesday, Oct. 28, during Community Time and lunch. Emma, Anwita, Racheal, and Jordan were all hesitant about how many people were going to attend because it seemed like a smaller event to them. “When a lot of people, more than I expected, started coming up, I was like, wow, this actually might work,” Emma said. “I was worried that we’d be sitting there with nobody coming.”
The stand bustled with people making bracelets and sipping their drinks, but the special moments were when teachers would stroll up and give donations just to show support before heading off. “A lot of the teachers just stopped by, and they would say that they didn’t want to take like the bracelets or anything, but they just genuinely wanted to give them money,” Emma said.
When asked about why she thought people were initially interested in the stand, Jordan shared that it wasn’t just an entertaining event, but an important message for food insecurity awareness. “I think it wasn’t just making your own bracelets and getting hot cocoa,” Jordan said. “It was also to support food insecurity in Hartford, so people decided to donate.” Anwita agreed and added her input. “It’s cute and fun,” Anwita said. “And the proceeds go to a good cause. So it just makes them more interested.”
In those two periods, the Bracelets and Hot Cocoa event raised more money than the Lead and Learn group expected. “I was, again, really surprised to see how many people actually wanted to help,” Emma said. “ And then at the end, knowing that we raised $167, I was not expecting a number like that. It just made me feel really good that we planned something out.”
Throughout the planning and execution of the fundraiser, the group collectively learned valuable lessons about leadership and the importance of addressing and giving back to real-world issues, such as food insecurity. “I think in the Lead and Learn part of it, I learned that it’s important to give back to the community, and through ways like this,” Anwita said. “It’s really easy because it’s just in your school, and it’s really easy to set up.” Racheal agreed. “These events are important because one, they raise money, and two, they bring a sense of reality to KO,” she said.
Lead and Learn shows how hands-on projects matter at KO, not only for the school community, but also for bringing awareness to important issues. It helped students understand social issues like food insecurity, while also practicing leadership, problem solving, and building teamwork. Projects like the Bracelets and Hot Cocoa event raised awareness at KO and brought in donations for an organization.
