Theme For Spirit Of Beacon Day 2023: "Level Up"

Each year, the Spirit of Beacon Day has had a theme. Last year, it was The Origin Story. To remind people what the Spirit of Beacon Day is, and why it exists. It is not just a day to celebrate Beacon with a street fair. This is a day dedicated to connecting the youth to the community. Born in 1977 out of racial tensions between kids and the community. And those days are not over. They never will be. We have to connect to each other each and every day to ensure that we are understood and heard by each other.

This year, the theme of the Spirit of Beacon Day is “Level Up” (no, we don’t mean 4 story buildings, so don’t go there).

“Level Up” can mean many things, and we want to know how you perceive it. What does Leveling Up mean to you?

The Spirit of Beacon’s Secretary, Jeana Pearl Fletcher, had been thinking about this term a lot. She recently moved to Beacon, found a job in NYC that has her commuting. She joined the Spirit committee in order to get her hands into Beacon to get to know the community. “Level Up is a pump-up message to challenge myself with something new, like a goal or event, and embrace lessons learned. It can be a collective practice too!”

The Spirit of Beacon’s Treasurer, Jennifer Garfield Abrams, felt this: “Love Jeana’s meaning. It really resonates with me! I also think about it in terms of what it would mean for Beacon to ‘Level Up.’ There are so may people in the community who work on different projects to ensure that it’s the best Beacon it can be. Sometimes our visions for Beacon’s ‘leveling up’ are different, but the important thing is that we come together across that difference to work towards an even more thriving community.”

Said the Spirit of Beacon’s Chair, Katie Hellmuth: “In Beacon, ‘Leveling Up’ means to me to learn about new things, that may be old and normal to somebody else, and work to understand its place here in Beacon. Leveling Up in Beacon to me means speaking out about it in order to preserve it. Not to preserve something in stone. But to share what is going on so that people know about it, in case unfairness is persevering by leveling something flat.”

Spirit of Beacon Board Member, Junior Zayed Dabashi conveyed that “Level Up” means to him: “Elevate our everyday efforts to better our present and strengthen the future for our youth.”

What does Level Up mean to you in Beacon? Bring this spirit with you to the Spirit of Beacon Day on Sunday, September 24, 2023.