Peddie students finished off a great school year with artistic acts of community service on May 18 and 20. Peddie held the Go Green Art Show and the Peddie Music Community Service Concert.  Both proved to be a success as children from Better Beginnings excitedly showed off their artwork, and the elderly from Meadow Lakes enjoyed music performed by the students.

The Peddie Music Community Service Club was created by Sue Lee ’18 and Qihui (Ariel) Tao ’19 in an attempt to enrich and diversify the opportunities that are available to Peddie musicians. Students headed over to Meadow Lakes, a senior community, where they provided a selection of songs ranging from “Hey Jude” performed by Rocco Cartusciello to a Prokofiev violin duet performed by Lee and Anny Shao ’18. The musicians then sat down to talk to the residents about their lives and to listen to advice.

“The elderly there absolutely loved it and the best part of the performance was getting to talk to them afterwards about their experience with music and performing,” Lee said.

“I really hope I can perform at Meadow Lakes next year too. Everyone was so receptive to the music, and it was so much fun talking to the elderly,” Yoyo Wang ’18 said.

The leaders of the club explained that they hope to connect their passion for music with a greater cause that goes beyond both their own enjoyments and Peddie. In the future, they hope to create a tighter relationship between the Peddie students and the elderly by utilizing music as a bridge.

The Better Beginnings Club and the International Student Organization also teamed up to create a similar community service experience for the children in Better Beginnings Daycare. Over the span of a few weeks, Peddie students collected recyclable items from both the school campus and from their homes. This recyclables were then given to the children who created art pieces from the scraps. Once the art pieces were made, Peddie hosted an art show where the children were able to showcase their hard work.

“It was being able to see the kids and their artwork. A lot of the children were more artistic than I am, and I’m glad that we were able to portray that in the show,” Christine Ayoh ’17 said.

“The art made by the kids was very creative and beautifully made, but my favorite part was definitely interacting with them and talking to them about their lives,” Emmy Wang ’17 said.

The leaders of Better Beginnings explained that they hope to strengthen the relationship between the children at the daycare and the students at Peddie. They hope to turn the art show into a tradition and eventually hold more events for the children.