2024 March Community Newsletter
Community Engagement and Belonging
March 2024
Hello and welcome to the month of March. March is a beautiful month to celebrate the diversity of Women, the beginning of Spring, and so many other wonderful recognitions while also sharpening our awareness on many issues and topics as well. There will be many school activities happening during the month of March. Although we have a short amount of time in school together, we will make the best of our time we have together. Please see information below regarding a collection drive for Women's History Month to support local women's shelters. The drive is being organized by our Lower School and Middle School Changemakers.
Please be sure to attend the musical, I am looking forward to seeing our talented students perform as they have been working so incredibly hard. You can purchase tickets here: Big Fish Tickets
I hope that your Spring Break is wonderful and enjoyable. As always, if you would like to add to our newsletter or have questions, please contact me. All the Best. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Michelle Cureton
Director of Community Engagement and Belonging
Middle School Changemakers Women's History Month Donation Drive
The donation bins are located outside the Middle School wing. The Lower School Changemakers will write inspiring notes which will be placed in the care packages the Middle School Changemakers are putting together.
March Bulletin Boards & Book Display
Middle School Changemakers Board
Upper School Community Engagement and Belonging Board
Lower School Women's History Month Book Display
Month Long Celebrations:
- Women's History Month
- Developmental Disability Awareness Month
- Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month
- Social Work Month
- Irish-American Heritage Month
- National Reading Month
- Greek American Heritage Month
- National Optimism Month
- Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month
- Kidney Cancer Awareness Month
- Bisexual/Bi+ Health Awareness Month
- Red Cross Month
Weekly Celebrations:
- Read an E-Book Week (March 3-9)
- Celebrate Your Name Week (March 3-9)
- Women In Construction Week (March 3-March 9)
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Week (March 3-March 9)
- Girl Scouts Week (March 10-March 16)
- National Sleep Awareness Week (March 10-March 16)
- International Brain Awareness Week (March 11-March 17)
- National Anonymous Giving Week (March 17-23)
- American Chocolate Week (March 17-March 23)
- National Introvert Week (March 18-24)
Daily Recognitions:
March 1st
- World Music Therapy Day
- International Women of Color Day
- National Black Women in Jazz and the Arts
- National Employee Appreciation Day
- Peace Corps Day
- Share a Smile Day
- World Day of Prayer
- Zero Discrimination Day
March 2nd:
- National Read Across America Day
- World Teen Mental Wellness Day
March 3rd:
- National Anthem Day
- World Hearing Day
- Namesake Day
March 4th:
- Brain Injury Awareness Day
- World Day of Fight against Sexual Exploitation
March 5th:
- Dissociative Identity Disorder Awareness Day
- Unique Names Day
March 6th:
- Day of Memorial And Respect For Veterans
March 8th:
- United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace
- International Women’s Day
- United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace
March 9th:
- World Kidney Day
March 10th:
- Daylight Savings
- First Day of Ramadan (Muslim holiday)
- National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
March 11th:
- World Day of Muslim Culture, Peace, Dialogue and Film
March 12th:
- Equal Pay Day
- National Girl Scouts Day
March 13th:
- International Every Girl Wins Day
- K-9 Veterans Day
March 14th:
- Celebrate Scientists Day
- International Day of Mathematics
- Pi Day
- Science Education Day
March 15th:
- International Day To Combat Islamophobia
- National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence
- World Essential Workers' Day
March 17th: St. Patrick's Day
March 18th: Transit Driver Worker Appreciation Day
March 19th:
- Certified Nurses Day
- International Read To Me Day
- National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
March 20th:
- International Day of Happiness
- French Language Day
- World Maths Day
- World Storytelling Day
- World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People
March 21st:
- International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
- National Teenager Day
- World Down Syndrome Day
- World Poetry Day
March 23rd:
- Purim (Jewish Holiday)
- Atheist Day
March 24th:
- International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims
- Palm Sunday
March 25th:
- Holi (Hindu Holiday)
- Greek Independence Day
- International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
March 26th:
- American Diabetes Alert Day
- Epilepsy Awareness/Purple Day
March 27th:
- American Red Cross Giving Day
March 28th:
- Holy Thursday (Easter Week)
March 29th:
- Good Friday (Easter Week)
- National Vietnam Wars Veterans Day
March 30th:
- Doctor's Day
- World Bipolar Day
March 31st :
- Easter Sunday
- Transgender Day of Visibility
2024 Women's History Month
The 2024 Theme is “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.”
March Mantras and Quotes Presented by:
Upper School French and Spanish teacher, Mr. Alan Rivera
Please enjoy the mantras and quotes etc. below for March. All focused on Women!
"I raise up my voice not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back."
• Malala Yousafzai (Education activist, Pakistan)
"There is no such thing as the 'voiceless'. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard."
• Arundhati Roy (Writer, India)
"You can never leave footprints that last if you are always walking on tiptoe."
•Leymah Gbowee (Peace activist, Liberia)
"Feminism is not about making women strong. Women are already strong. It's about changing the world so that men and women can be equal."
• Emma Watson (Actress, United Kingdom)
"Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time."
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Former Supreme Court Associate Justice, United States)
"I am like a drop of water on a rock. After drip, drip, dripping in the same place, I begin to leave a mark.” • Rigoberta Menchú Tum (Human rights activist, Guatemala)
"Until you plant a tree, you haven't done a thing. You can talk and talk and talk, but when you plant a tree, that's the action. That's the thing that actually changes the planet."
•Wangari Maathai (Social, environmental, political activist, Kenya)
"Every girl who gets an education is a potential leader, an activist, a changemaker in her community."
• Oprah Winfrey (Talk show host, television producer, actress, author, media
proprietor, United States)
"We want to turn victims into survivors - and survivors into thrivers."
• Tarana Burke (Community organizer, activist, executive, United States)
“No country prospers without the engagement of women. We need women’s representation that reflects all women and girls in all their diversity and abilities, and across all cultural, social, economic and political situations. This is the only way we will get real societal change that incorporates women in decision-making as equals and benefits us all.”
• Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (Former UN Under-Secretary General, South Africa)
"Politics gains quality when there are women."
• Michelle Bachelet (Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights , Chile)
"When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision - then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid."
• Audre Lorde (Writer, professor, philosopher, activist, United States)
“Fear is inevitable. I have to accept that, but I cannot allow it to paralyze me.”
• Isabel Allende (Writer, Chile)
“I was tired of being on the sidelines.”
• Nzambi Matee (Engineer, environmentalist, inventor, Kenya)
"They said, 'You are a savage and dangerous woman.' I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous."
• Nawal El Saadawi (Physician, writer, activist, Egypt)
"To those who oppose us, we say, 'Strike the woman, and you strike the rock'."
• Winnie Mandela (Anti-apartheid activist, politician, South Africa)
"It takes courage and strength to be empathetic, and I'm very proudly an empathetic and compassionate leader."
• Jacinda Ardern (Former Prime Minister, New Zealand)
"Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice."
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Writer, activist, politician, Somalia/Netherlands)
"The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. Imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer to be our true individual selves, if we didn't have the weight of gender expectations."
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Writer, Nigeria)
“If your child marches to a different beat, a different drummer, you might just have to go along with that music. Help them achieve what's important to them.”
• Sonia Sotomayor (Supreme Court Associate Justice, United States)
"I strongly believe that love is the answer and that it can mend even the deepest unseen wounds. Love can heal, love can console, love can strengthen, and yes, love can make change."
• Somaly Mam (Anti-trafficking activist, Cambodia)
“Can we therefore claim in all earnestness to love our children - the children of the North and the South - if we do not give the most serious attention to preventing a world that has more than enough resources from dividing ever more deeply between rich and poor?”
• Graça Machel (Politician, humanitarian, Mozambique)
"We want to turn victims into survivors - and survivors into thrivers."
• Tarana Burke (Community organizer, activist, executive, United States)
“I want my daughter to know that she is entitled to be powerful and, on occasion, to compete with other people, including privileged boys and men. I want her to know that if she does end up winning or otherwise outranking them, she may well be entitled to occupy a position of power or authority over them. I want her to be a kind and fearless leader. I want her, of course, to be a graceful loser. I want her to be communally minded and altruistic. At the same time, I want her to feel entitled to make mistakes, moral mistakes included. I want her to know, unlike so many girls and women, that she is lovable and forgivable, even if and when she falters. I want her to be prepared to make amends and admit to her mistakes, fully and freely, when she inevitably makes them.”
• Kate Manne (Philosopher, professor, Australia)
“Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future. Act now, without delay,”
• Simone de Beauvoir (Philosopher, writer, feminist activist, France)