The Day The Pumpkins Flew At NMS

By Eliza Hallabeck

When it comes to hurling pumpkins, larger ones go farther, as students at Newtown Middle School learned Wednesday, November 12 when a member of the faculty set up a trebuchet at the school.

“You want one that is about five pounds,” said Nancy Michaud, a seventh grade student at the school and the daughter of the Marc Michaud, the creator of the giant catapult.

As students shouted from the sidelines to put a smaller pumpkin on the rope to send across the back field of the school, Nancy said smaller pumpkins do not have enough weight to push them for longer distances.

The trebuchet at NMS had its beginnings during lunch at the school when Mr Michaud, an educational aide at the school who also works with the Project Adventure course, was talking with technology education teacher Don Ramsey. Mr Ramsey said two or three years ago Steve Paproski, of Paproski Castle Hill Farm, came to him with the idea of building a trebuchet, but the project never got off the ground.

Mr Michaud said when he heard about the project, he went home and drew up the plan for a trebuchet. Then, he said, he sat down with his father, Raymond Michaud, and discussed the details.

“Dad built a model,” said Nancy, “brought it to Mr Ramsey and they presented it to [NMS Principal Diane] Sherlock.”

Mr Michaud said the design for this trebuchet was his, but historically Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian Renaissance artist, mathematician and inventor, figured out the proper proportions to make trebuchets work. A trebuchet uses a leverage to propel a projectile much farther and more accurately than a catapult, which swings off the ground.

“He also figured out the proportion of the counterweight to the projectile,” said Mr Michaud.

Once Mr Michaud and his father went over the design, the rest was all trial and error, he said.

Mr Ramsey said the pumpkins were being flung about half the length of a football field

As it has been named, the Paproski Trebuchet took about a month to assemble. Mr Michaud said the school donated $300 for supplies, and another portion of the cost came from his own pocket.

“I started in my driveway and ran out of room,” said Mr Michaud.

He brought the project to his father’s house, also in Newtown, and continued working on it there. Nancy said she helped when she could by “running around, handing tools, taking measurements, and other little stuff.”

A police escort had to help Mr Michaud bring the project to the school, because, he said, it was too big to be transported across town on its own.

Nancy said most of the pumpkins at NMS on Wednesday came from the Mr Paproski’s farm, and her grandfather also brought some to the school.

Mr Michaud and Mr Ramsey monitored the wooden apparatus during the entire day, and teachers were invited to bring students out to witness the pumpkins being flung across the back field of the school. Mr Michaud also asked for volunteers to pull the string to launch the pumpkins.

Assistant Principal Kathy Boettner was one of the volunteers during the day. Mr Ramsey said the trebuchet will be housed at Castle Hill Farm during the year, but it will make trips to the school during the school year. The next time the creation will be at NMS is scheduled for the spring.

Mr Ramsey said Mr Paproski plans to use the trebuchet to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

“It’s a real example of when people come together,” said Mr Ramsey.

Mr Michaud’s “tremendous expertise and mechanical experience” combined with different members of the faculty to make the trebuchet an interdisciplinary teaching tool, Mr Ramsey said.

As new students came out of the school to view the pumpkins being flung, Mr Ramsey announced through a speaker, “Come one. Come all. See the mechanical novel known as the Paproski Trebuchet.”