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Each year, on the day before Thanksgiving, MFS students from Prekindergarten through Grade 12 gather together for a special all-school tradition called Thanksgiving Happening. More than 40 mixed-age groups of students, faculty, and staff create Thanksgiving gifts such as wreaths, tissue paper flowers, and murals to deliver to South Jersey nursing homes and continuing care facilities. The school also comes together for a song led by the music teachers, an interfaith prayer, a Thanksgiving story, and Meeting for Worship.

Many students have attended the event for over a decade, but for some – especially freshmen – this was the first time.

“This is my first year here,” said Kieran Lees ’17. “Everybody is so nice! The people in my group honestly gave me inspiration to do more good in my community because of their sincerity and kindness.”

Classmate Teddy Kinzler ’17 agreed: “This is a great time to meet other kids from Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools. I was really impressed with how welcoming everybody was.”

For senior Emily Tatum, this year’s Happening was bittersweet.

“This is really hard for me, because this is my last Thanksgiving Happening” said Tatum. “It hasn’t really hit me yet… a lot of my freshmen from my Peer Leadership group are here, and I love seeing them work with the younger kids and act as role models.”

At the end of the event, students learned the number of complete dinners they collected as part of the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive: this year, MFS families and students contributed, packed, and delivered 167 holiday meals to local families in need.

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Sujin Kim ’17 contributed reporting to this post.