Return Of The Pushcart Wars

By Laurie Borst

If you had children attend fifth grade at Sandy Hook School, you may remember a very popular spring activity: The Pushcart Wars. Prior to the building of Reed School and the fifth graders moving there, The Pushcart Wars, by Jean Merrill, was part of the reading curriculum.

The book told the story of the clash between pushcart vendors in New York City and the increasing truck traffic that competed for space on the streets. It is a wonderful teaching vehicle about conflict and resolution.

This spring, Reed sixth grade teacher Valerie Pagano-Hepburn has revived the event. On the morning of April 4, her classroom looked and sounded like the streets of old New York. Pushcarts filled the room, signs proclaimed various avenues and streets, and vendors loudly hawked their wares.

Students had worked in small groups to create “pushcarts” and selected an assortment of food, clothing, jewelry, sports memorabilia, and other tchotchkes to offer for sale. Some items were handmade/homemade while others were purchased. The students worked for four months on their pushcarts.

Mrs Pagano-Hepburn designed math and business lessons around the activity. The students learned about profit and loss, supply and demand. They kept track of amounts spent on supplies, made decisions about pricing, with the goal of covering costs. And making a profit. Profits were donated to charities selected by the students.

Courtney Escoda, Courtney Yapp, and Melissa Biscoe chose to offer decorated jeans, purses, pillows, and earrings for sale, all homemade items. Their cart sold the most, earning $211.

Michelle Spanedda and Molly Arneth made cupcakes, brownies, necklaces, bracelets. Molly felt the event was fun, while Michelle stated she learned a lot about profit and loss and the value of teamwork.

Trevor Parsons had a supply of sports items, i.e., pens, cards, etc, for sale. “I learned how to be a better salesman,” he said of the activity.

Candy, buttons, hats, leis, snacks, treats, tattoos, books, magnets, even “Fresh Mountain Air” (spray scent added to baggies) for use in lockers could all be purchased from the young entrepreneurs.

The students raised $1,367 in just under three hours. The students chose to donate half the funds to Heifer International. Mrs Pagano-Hepburn explained the students have been studying Asia and Africa. They chose to purchase one animal for Asia and one for Africa.

The other half of the money will be donated to Kevin’s Community Center, which provides free health care to Newtown residents over the age of 16 who are uninsured or underinsured and have limited resources.