ESSO in Action
Hello! I’m John Ragone, one of the Communications Coordinators on the new ESSO Board and a co-head of Beach Cleanup Club with Issay Matsumoto. This is the first of hopefully many succeeding articles highlighting ESSO clubs.
I have been involved with ESSO since I was a prep; Beach Cleanup Club first caught my attention as a great chance to get off campus. After signing up, I hopped on a Red Dragon with Mr. Trafton, and have been doing so the first Sunday of every month since.
When I first stumbled across our club, it seemed to be one of those quintessential community service clubs, like the ones that work with seniors and food kitchens (check out Games with Seniors and Salvation Army!). However, I quickly learned that ESSO was much more expansive than that. From encouraging children to program to facilitating the Special Olympics, ESSO has it all.
Because of its multitude of opportunities, the clear meaning of ESSO, beyond Non Sibi, can initially seem muddled. Yet every member of ESSO develops his or her individual view of its importance as they wipe away this obscurity with the cloth of their club. On the surface, ESSO may seem like a cookie cutter group for the stereotypical community service clubs, but rather it is an inclusive organization brimming with different perspectives on the role of service in the Exeter community.
When I began mulling over what ESSO meant, I shied away from the all-too-common ideas of hand-in-hand harmony that I found in middle school. I started thinking of what Beach Cleanup was trying to do outside of just cleaning beaches. What were we trying to do? What was the purpose behind cleaning the beach? So we could clean it again the next month? Then it clicked. It was not simply about maintaining our hope in a clean beach, but rather about furthering and disseminating our actions in hopes that one day the local people of Seabrook Beach would no longer need a beach cleanup. More broadly, ESSO is to me a match for the candle of community service; it is not the pinnacle of Non Sibi, but it gives our community a vessel to spread the qualities of Non Sibi to dorm members, family, friends, our town, our nation and the entire world. Ultimately, ESSO gives everyone a unique perspective, and it is up to you to find your club and discover exactly that.
Lastly, I would like to promote one more ESSO activity before I end: Relay for Life is having a poetry reading from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the library tomorrow, and though the submission deadline has passed, it is an excellent time to hear students’ perspectives on the effects of cancer on their lives and become more aware about the often unspoken pervasion of cancer across our campus and the globe. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a complete mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation therapy during my freshman year, so although I am not one for sappy emotions, it does mean a lot to me when I hear that there are other students undergoing similar experiences and that we have a campus with people willing to support these students in the community.