Sarah (Regan) Dewey ’11
What involvement did/do you have with MOVE? What program did/do you volunteer with and/or lead? What years?
I led After School Games my senior year (2010-2011) after participating for a year or two before that. I also volunteered regularly with Correctional Volleyball, attended two service trips (one to Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, one to the Dominican Republic), had a work study job in the MOVE Office for 3 years, and volunteered for an assortment of other causes/events.
What’s your MOVE story?
MOVE not only provided me with opportunities to support and connect with the local community, it also served as the way in which I met many of my closest friends today. Even those of us who didn’t meet specifically because of MOVE, we can still certainly credit our time spent in that office and in service of the community as one of the ways we grew our relationships.
In what ways did/does MOVE impact you?
For me and my friends, MOVE is synonymous with the names Heidi St. Peter, Jason Moore, and Erin (Collins) Bodin. Heidi, Jay, and Erin provided us with constant inspiration, comfort, and love. They were hugely influential in how I chose to spend my time while at St. Mike’s, as well as the path I embarked on after graduating. Their connections allowed me (and my now husband) to move to Uganda after college, and the experience we had there was amazing.
Beyond the individuals, the most impactful aspect of my time with MOVE was the constant centering of the people we were serving. We learned that any “good” we were doing through an individual program or service trip was merely a small piece of the puzzle. Through reflection and relationship-building, we were guided towards looking at issues systematically and recognizing that we had far more to learn from others than they had to learn from us.
If you are an alumni, what influence does MOVE continue to have on your life today?
The lessons learned and the relationships built through MOVE definitely continue to influence my life today. For the past nine years, I have worked in public charter schools that do not stay quiet when there are injustices or inequities impacting our students and families. While I might not have been aware of it at the time, I think my involvement with MOVE and the philosophy of service at St. Mike’s drew me to these types of workplaces. And I often think back to the Aboriginal quote that Meg Kerrigan painted on the wall outside the MOVE Office during our time there: “If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” It’s a quote that informed our work in MOVE as well as my own life after college, and it’s one I’ve shared with many of my students over the years.