Foundation Will Honor Favretti

New York's Sousa Mendes Foundation will honor Maggie Favretti '85 (above) for organizing Westchester students to support international refugees.

Maggie Favretti '85, a history teacher at Scarsdale High School and leader of the school's community garden, will be honored by the Sousa Mendes Foundation for spearheading efforts in Westchester County to organize students to support refugees.

Founded in 2010, the Mendes Foundation honors Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a diplomat from Portugal, who when stationed in France in World War II assisted in providing visas for thousands of refugees fleeing the Nazi regime. He did so against the wishes of the Portuguese government.     Favretti will receive the honor at a scheduled program later this year at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.

For the past several years, Favretti has also coordinated the Yale Day of Service program in Scarsdale, where Yale alumni and friends prepare the garden on the school's grounds for spring planting. The community garden produces over 1,500 pounds of food (from about 7,500 sq. ft. of garden space), the bulk of which is supplied to area food shelters.

Favretti has also been recognized by the White House for her gardening programs, including assisting other communities in the area in starting their own gardens.

The Mendes Foundation is citing her for encouraging students at Scarsdale High School to start an organization, Students for Refugees, to support refugees and inform Westchester residents about the plight of refugees around the world, including those from Syria.

She and Scarsdale students were inspired to launch the organization when they visited Germany on a school cultural trip in 2015. On the trip, they met with refugees and resettlement organizations and decided to organize when they returned to Scarsdale.

Over time, the Scarsdale group expanded the initiative to other Westchester schools.  Today, there are at least 10 Students for Refugees (SFR) chapters at Westchester high schools. They convene to learn more about refugee families and assist in local and international efforts to resettle refugees into other countries, including the U.S.

The Scarsdale chapter held a forum in April to discuss why refugees flee and how they resettle in foreign countries. It hosted a Westchester schools conference in May. The Scarsdale and other school chapters have arranged to work with other Westchester and Connecticut settlement organizations, including the Westchester Refugee Task Force.

Other current projects have included a fund-raising effort for Syrian refugees and public events to educate the community about refugees.