Day of Service
A Loeb Alumni Day of Service took place in Tijuana after the 2019 Fall Study Tour inaugurating a new tradition of annual community service.
2022: Making Places in Lowell: A 50th Anniversary Day of Service
What better way to celebrate 50 years of Loeb Contributions to the world than a Day of Service!
"The intellectual electricity generated in the Loeb Fellowship 50th Reunion weekend in October came to ground in a Day of Service the following Monday in Lowell, Massachusetts. Some 20 Loeb alumni and affiliates converged at Project Learn, an educational foundation directed by LZ Nunn ’13 and the locus of an initiative to promote the city’s vitality through public art—ArtUp." Read more of Barbara Epstein's story on the Fellowship website
From this Lowell Sun article:
…Over the last 3 years, ArtUp Lowell has become a city-wide Coalition of local artists, business owners, and dedicated community members whose mission it is to increase civic engagement in the arts, celebrate the city’s cultural vitality, and boost foot traffic and spending at restaurants and small businesses near where murals are located.
As Lowell began to emerge from the initial waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the fall of 2021, the Coalition began looking for ways to jumpstart the city’s economic recovery and amplify Lowell’s reputation as a center for vibrant, multicultural art that celebrates diverse community stories.
Representation matters. When young people see their culture represented skillfully in large-scale public art, it encourages them to be involved in civic spaces, and in community building.
2020: Everywhere and All at Once
To honor our 50th year, Loebs everywhere were invited to perform (in person or virtually) some service activity on or around the anniversary weekend. About 40 Loebs pledged to participate in this initiative.
Not surprisingly, several Loebs were actively working on election-related actions including canvassing, phone banking, text-banking, etc. Tessa Huxley ’87and Ed McNamara ’95 wrote letters for Vote Forward to folks in Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. Richard Reinhard ’96 worked the polls for early voting. Jamie Blosser ’15 was also committed to election-related activities in the weekend. In addition to their get-out-the-vote work
Rob Lane ’09 (and Affiliate Janet Roseff) volunteered for the Bronx River Alliance by gardening at Concrete Plant Park. Other Loebs pushed on with their long-term service activities in the name of our 50th anniversary. Bob Daylor, ’77 (and Affiliate Sue) continued their tradition of cleaning the Town Beach in Westport, MA at the end of the season. Cindy Freidmutter ’92 has been helping her not-for-profit organization clients to design interventions to address the impacts of COVID on low-income New Yorkers who have historically suffered from health disparities. Sarah Peskin ’94 continued her work helping to restore the Frances Perkins National Historic Landmark Center in Newcastle, Maine.
Julie Campoli ‘10 harvested kale, carrots, beets and collard greens. The veggies topped off her summer-long contribution to Plant for the People, a Burlington, VT Covid relief campaign that enlisted local gardeners to supply the local food shelf with over 6,000 lbs of fresh produce.
Rodolpho Ramina ’04 finished his short video on dams in the South Atlantic rain forest.
Most significantly, the weekend was an excuse for several Loebs to meet either in person or virtually. Steve Lewis ’07 convened several people from his class including Deb Frieden, Brian Kuehl, Denise Arnold and Cathy Crenshaw. They discussed at length a potential project in Birmingham around creating a safe space to gather and reflect on issues of race.
Kathy Dorgan ’02 brought together James Stockard ’78, Kathleen Fox ’02 and Rob Lane ’09 for an online consultation with the board members of a newly formed affordable housing not-for-profit in Mansfield, CT, to talk about organizational issues and fund-raising.
Rob Stein ’94, Rob Lane ’09, Deborah Morris ’20, Katie Swenson ’20, Malia Leiper (Affiliate ‘20) gathered masked-and-in-person at Stephen Burks’ ’20 new gallery space in DUMBO to brainstorm potential projects to crowd-source to the larger Loeb Community and settled on the need to address the looming eviction crisis.
Pallavi Kalia Mande ’17 and Etty Padmodipoetro, ’06 met to brainstorm ways to transform traditional infrastructure projects into green infrastructure that are climate resilient in environmental justice communities using a social equity lens.
Thanks again to all the Loebs who sent in their reports. We looking forward to organizing more Day of Service activities in the future!