Hawley Students Practice Community Service

By Eliza Hallabeck

Fourth grade students across the district are charged with completing community service projects, and at Hawley Elementary School some of those projects came due this week, following the school calendar’s winter break.

Hawley fourth grade teachers Lea Attanasio, Stephanie Dunshee, Melissa Thorpe, and Michael Wight explained the projects were due at different times in the year for each fourth grade class at the school.

Ms Attanasio added that the teachers begin the project with a role-playing exercise about a monarchy. Then, she continued, students discuss the democratic government established in the United States and the rights of citizens.

“And then we give kids a chance to decide what is important to them,” said Ms Attanasio, “and design this project.”

According to Ms Thorpe, the students come up with a list of things that could use support in the community.

“Then they choose something that is personal to them, but it is only one to two hours of community service,” Ms Thorpe continued. “Some of them range from picking up litter around a certain area… or some students do something more complex. It is supposed to be something very doable without money being involved.”

In Ms Dunshee’s class, she one girl collected letters, artwork, and cards to send to a nursing home for patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Another student, she said, wrote letters to local first responders to say thank you for what they do for the community.

Another student in Ms Dunshee’s class, Jacob Lujanac, recently raised money for the Newtown Animal Shelter by holding a bake sale at Masonicare of Newtown on December 16.

Jacob said he sold brownies, pumpkin loaf, cups of candy, and more.

“I thought it would be nice for the animals to have some more food and medicine,” said Jacob.

He helped his mother, Hilary Lujanac bake the goods for the bake sale, and following the event, Jacob said he thought it went well.

A lot of people stopped by to purchase the goods, he said, and some stopped by to donate money.

Jacob said he chose the project because his uncle and aunt are veterinarians, and he has a dog named Giovanni, who he thought about while trying to raise money.

Jacob raised $168 from his time spent at Masonicare, where his father, John Lujanac works.

Another fourth grader at Hawley, Nick Preszler, said he helped the program supported by his grandmother, Shirly Fredlund.

“My project was helping my grandma’s program, where she gets money from companies that donate money to her to buy computers for people who are paralyzed,” said Nick.

Nick said the program is called Voice For Joanie, and it has a website, www.voiceforjoanie.org. The program helps support those who cannot communicate due to having ALS ( or Lou Gehrig’s disease), according to the website.

When asked if there was anyone he wanted to thank for helping him complete his project, Nick responded, “My grandmother for doing good things for other people.”

Amazing Things

“We have kids that are doing can drives in their neighborhoods for the soup kitchen,” said Mr Wight, sharing other projects students are working on or have completed.

After completing projects, Ms Thorpe said students typically create posters with photos taken during the one to two hours of the community service project. The students then present their accomplishments to their class.

“They have done really amazing things,” said Ms Thorpe. “It has always been really surprising to me how much they really are able to do, or how much the community really does need. There are a lot of needs here they are able to help out with. It shows them that what they think may be something simple turns out to be a great project, because they really help.”

The community service project is part of the fourth grade curriculum in the district, according to Mr Wight.

Many of the students, the teachers said, connect to their projects through personal experiences, like one girl whose family adopted a dog; the student raised money for the shelter the dog had been adopted from for her community service project.

Fourth grader Camryn Griffin said he made cookies and visited Maplewood in Newtown.

“I made cookies for older people, and I went to visit them to ask if they needed help with anything. Some are in wheelchairs and others don’t get visitors around the holidays so I thought it would be nice to do for them,” said Camryn.

Camryn said he made sugar cookies and jelly cookies for his trip to Maplewood.

“A lot of them really like it,” Camryn said. “I thought that it made people feel better that they actually had someone to see around the holidays, in case they don’t have any visitors.”

Another student, Cece Floros, fulfilled her community service hours a little closer to home when she made dinner for her elderly neighbor, Kay Ozanne.

“She doesn’t have many visitors to her house and her nurse doesn’t come on the weekends,” said Cece. “So I made her dinner, and I brought it over to her.”

Cece said she prepared roasted chicken, peas, and mashed potatoes.

“She really liked it,” Cece said. Adding, “I thought it made her happy.”

Fellow fourth grader Devin Johnson said he made ten pillows to go first to Newtown Social Services then to Homes In Need.

To accomplish his task, Devin said, “I took fabric, then my mom cut little lines in the fabric, so I tied the two pieces of fabric together. Then I stuffed them.”

Devin said he has not sewn before, but he would make pillows in this fashion again.

“I thought that it would make people happy that they would get pillows and a present at Christmas,” said Devin.

Camryn, Cece, and Devin all thanked their parents for supporting their causes.

Across Newtown, Ms Attanasio, Ms Dunshee, Ms Thorpe, and Mr Wight said residents should keep an eye out for signs of other fourth grade community projects that may happen throughout the school year, and not just from Hawley fourth grade students.