Schools

Student-Led Committee to Host Town-Wide Dance on March 23

The Medfield Youth Action Committee is organizing a town-wide swing dance on Friday, March 23 at the Pfaff Center from 7 to 10 p.m. to bring the community's youth and adults together.

The Medfield Youth Action Committee, a student-led initiative in town, was organized this past July to bring the community’s youth and adults together.

After months of hard work and dedication, the 30-member committee is ready to hold its first major event – a town-wide swing dance at the on Friday, March 23 from 7 to 10 p.m.

“Everyone from the community is invited,” said Courtney Beckwith, a senior and member of the Medfield Youth Action Committee (MYAC). “[The dance is] a good way to spend a Friday night. … You can go and you can dance ... dancing is always fun.”

Find out what's happening in Medfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The town-wide event will feature music from the nationally recognized and award-winning and offer swing dance lessons from students of the newly formed MHS dance club for those interested. Apple pie from Ever So Humble Pie in East Walpole will be served along with ice cream.

Tickets for the event, which are limited to 200 because of space at the Pfaff Center, are $3 and can be purchased at or by contacting the committee at medfieldyac@gmail.com. Any remaining tickets will be sold at the door. Parking will be available in the Pfaff Center lot and along Dale Street.

Find out what's happening in Medfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The money from ticket sales will cover the cost of the event and any profit will go towards the MHS Jazz Band, which is looking to raise funds for its .

“The jazz band is going to the Ellington Competition in New York City so they wanted to do a fundraiser swing dance and we heard their idea,” Beckwith said. “This was already after we had started planning our event so we said ‘why don’t we turn this into a little fundraiser for the jazz band’ and we will give them some of our profits, if we have any profits after [the event].”

Beckwith said the idea for a town-wide dance came from committee member and fellow MHS senior Alden Daybre, who is a “very active member in the MHS dance club” and other committee members who had participated in swing dancing during gym class.

“We’ve all done the swing dancing in gym and we all find it very fun and funny,” Beckwith said. “So we thought why not have a big community dance? From there, we went into this whole concept of let’s see how many people in the community we can get involved and make it a real community-wide event.”

Staying true to its goal of bringing the community together, the committee has sought out and received overwhelming support from adults throughout the town.

“There’s been a lot of support,” Beckwith said. “Jim Snyder [Director of the Parks and Recreation Department] has helped us out a lot. He helped us get the forms into the Board of Health and was a huge help. We didn’t realize how in-depth we had to go for the food. The Board of Health has helped us with everything. Mr. [Jeff] Sperling [of Medfield High School] has been a huge help. He helped us plan the date and make sure there wasn’t much going on the night [of the event]. He’s helping us spread the word. Mr. [Nat] Vaughn [Blake Middle School principal] is putting [the event] in newsletters.”

Retired Medfield educator, Richard DeSorgher, said the committee is “a very positive group of students” and the community should embrace the students' efforts.

“It is just such a positive movement of positive student leadership; students wanting to find ways to contribute to and give back to their community through community service, volunteering and running positive activities for Medfield teenagers,” DeSorgher said.

Beckwith is hopeful the committee’s first event will be a success and result in future town-wide events.

“Dancing is fun and the jazz band is really great, so it will be fun to hear that,” Beckwith said.

About MYAC

Here’s a closer look at the Medfield Youth Action Committee and how it went from a small student-led group last July to a 30-plus member committee in March:

The Founders of MYAC

Beckwith, Daybre and MHS senior Kim Knowles came together this past July with Medfield Youth Outreach worker Dawn Alcott to form the committee.

Establishing MYAC

Beckwith said two community groups that fizzled out last year – the Medfield Youth Collaborative Committee and a peer leadership group – influenced the creation of MYAC.

“I was in both [groups],” Beckwith said. “We started MYAC, which is kind of a combination of those two groups. We have a bunch of adults in the town working with us to get what we need and achieve our goal.”

Beckwith said in addition to bringing the community’s youth and adults together, it is trying to create a manual for students to refer to when they need to plan community events or need assistance from town departments.

“We have a bunch of adults in the town working with us to get what we need,” said Beckwith. “We are still working on volunteering and are trying to make a manual for a bunch of kids so they know how to get stuff done in the town. The manual will have contact information for the fire department, the police department, the Board of Health, just so [students] know who to contact and how to do things.”

Adults Involved with MYAC

Alcott has been the adult correspondent for the committee and has been a big help, according to Beckwith. Other adults who have been involved with the committee are selectman Osler “Pete” Peterson, Schools Superintendent Bob Maguire, Medfield Chief of Police Robert Meaney Jr., MHS principal Robert Parga, Charles Kellner, Schools Director of Finance and Operations and DeSorgher.

“We had a meeting in early February where we invited people in the town who we thought would be important and helpful,” said Beckwith. “Mr. DeSorgher has come to our meetings and he has helped out a ton. He was with us before the big meeting [in February] and he’s been giving us a lot of advice and coming to our meetings pretty consistently.”

Students in the Committee

Beckwith said roughly 30 students, mostly freshmen and sophomores, signed up for the committee but closer to 20 students consistently show up to the meetings, which are held every two weeks. Beckwith said teachers referred students to the committee.

Long-term Goal(s) of the Committee

Beckwith said the overall goal of the committee is to act “as a bridge between the youth and the adults in town and bridge connections" between the two.

“We want to be able to volunteer for different events,” Beckwith said. “Anyone who needs volunteering for events can come to us and ask for it. Then, if we have a need for adult [assistance] in the community, we make it easy for [students] to find out who to talk to and get what [they need] through the manual.”

Beckwith added the town-wide dance is a clear example of what the committee is trying to accomplish.

“Planning this dance is kind of our module because we needed to talk to the Board of Health to get food, talk to police about having their police detail,” Beckwith said. “[We found out] who to talk to about renting a space at the Pfaff Center or any of the schools and all this stuff that kids who want to get anything done in town need to know.”

New Members Are Always Welcomed

Beckwith said the committee is always looking for new members.

“We are always getting e-mails from kids and parents who are asking how to get involved,” Beckwith said. “If they just send an e-mail to us at medfieldyac@gmail.com then we will give them all the information they need. … We are always accepting new members who want to help out.”


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here