PITTSFIELD — For a group of local students, the past six months have provided a crash course in what constitutes community and, perhaps more important, what “home” means. While Keely O’Gorman calls the town of Lee home, of late she has her sights set on connecting with residents in the city of Pittsfield.
O’Gorman, a junior at Miss Hall’s School, had a stark realization this past fall: While driving around Pittsfield with her mother, she was surprised to see people on the side of the road, asking for money. “[It was] more than usual, likely due to COVID making things more difficult for many [area residents].” As to O’Gorman’s gut reaction? “Let’s help!” she said to her mother, and help they did, successfully delivering more than 50 Bags of Hope to St. Joseph’s emergency winter shelter at the end of February.
“We decided on toiletries,” O’Gorman told The Edge in a recent phone interview, citing an uptick in food pantries (and restrictions on food donations) since the start of the pandemic. Keen on making a difference, O’Gorman birthed the idea of getting donations of reusable shopping bags and raising money to fill them. She ultimately took the idea to her classmates, where, through the School’s Horizons curriculum — an immersive, experiential learning program that began 25 years ago — there existed a viable avenue for connecting students with the broader Pittsfield community. What was designed as a largely off-campus experience for students in grades 10-12 was forced to pivot this year; still, O’Gorman was determined.
Enter MAPS, Mira’s Alliance for Philanthropic Sustainability, a student-led Horizons project that stewards student philanthropy at Miss Hall’s (while paying tribute to the School’s founder, Mira Hinsdale Hall). O’Gorman, who called MAPS “the perfect group for me,” worked closely with classmates Aurora Benson, Neylan Johnson, and Sophia Sandoval to brainstorm alternative ways of raising awareness and collecting donations for their project which was “a little more complicated this year.”
In the end, MAPS raised roughly $700 (from students, friends, and neighbors) which — coupled with generous donations from Elm Street Market, Walgreens, Big Y, Target, and Walmart — resulted in a whopping carload of donations. Last weekend, O’Gorman and Benson delivered their Bags of Hope to the shelter at the former St. Joseph’s High School. The bags included hand sanitizer, baby wipes, and toothbrushes, plus warm gloves, hats, socks, and other items.
“It is so refreshing to see young people, such as the students at Miss Hall’ School, thinking about the needs of others and then taking action to assist in those needs,” said Julie MacDonald, site manager for the shelter. “I believe the old adage ‘and a little child shall lead them,’ is being reflected in [these students’] action[s],” MacDonald said. “Hope is fueled for our future when we see the younger generation stepping up and speaking out in word and in deed.”
As to O’Gorman’s ardent interest in helping others? “Honestly, my mom has always been a giving and sharing person, who passed those values on to me,” she explained. And her connection to Pittsfield, despite not living there, O’Gorman attributes to attending Miss Hall’s. “Even though we are [a] private [school], secluded [on our campus], Horizons really helps students be part of the community in which [we are] learning,” O’Gorman said.
Perhaps for the first time in the School’s 123-year history, this is particularly relevant considering the small group of boarding students who have been in residence at the Pittsfield campus since September, due to ongoing international travel restrictions and state quarantine requirements.
Recipients of the MAPS donations at St. Joseph’s are un-housed individuals who rely on the emergency shelter’s 52 beds for men and women. (Attempts to reach ServiceNet, who runs the site, were not returned.) As to the terminology? “I recently heard the term ‘house-less,’” O’Gorman said, before posing a wholly rhetorical question: “What makes a home? It’s not just a house.” In the end, the goal of O’Gorman and her peers is to inspire others to help out. “It takes a lot of work, but the community is open to [support] which makes [giving] easy … plus it makes you more compassionate and feels so good.”
