Special Guest Ginny Styer Visits Winter Service Learning Group
Special Guest Ginny Styer Visits Winter Service Learning Group
by Maleyah D. '27 and Lane K. '28, with contributions from the entire Winter Service Group
On Monday, December 9, Ms. Ginny Styer visited the Winter Community Service group. Ms. Styer is an energetic woman passionate about service and her Quaker meetings, and frequently volunteers at Olney Help. She is a friend of Ms. Niepold, our group adviser and Upper School Spanish teacher, and grew up in the DMV, being in the first-ever class of students at Walt Whitman High School. Ms. Styler's favorite quote is, "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." - Langston Hughes.
Ms. Niepold, Winter Community Service Group Adviser and Upper School Spanish teacher with Ms. Ginny Styer, volunteer at Olney Help.
During her visit, Ms. Styer spoke about her experiences helping people with food insecurity, a need for financial aid, and a lack of resources in the Olney area. Olney Help is an organization that provides donations and resources to help these people and solve these problems. We talked about the definition of food insecurity and how it is surprisingly prevalent in Montgomery County. She informed us that Montgomery County spends about $6.4 million per year on helping relieve food insecurity.
Ms. Styer also spoke about her travels and how she sees the wider impact of these problems all around the world, which is what makes her feel inclined to help out in the ways she can in her community.
In our first initiative as a group, we collected 77 canned goods that Ms. Styer will bring to the pantry at Olney Help.
Ms. Styer's visit inspired us to help our community and make a difference because of her long-standing connection to Olney Help and service to others.