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| Photo courtesy of R. Pandolfini Willimantic Chronicle. |
Senior Emily Favreau planned and organized a field day and hands-on activities to support and encourage young patients at a children's hospital in New Hampshire. Seniors and sisters Elizabeth Herman and Erika Herman designed and built musical instruments from reclaimed materials to promote sustainability and enhance the beauty of public pathways at a nature conservancy in New Jersey. And junior Anna Turner developed a creative writing workshop to enhance the learning experience for underserved students in Willimantic, Conn.
Introduced in January of this year, The Norton Fellows Program is an opportunity for rising Loomis Chaffee juniors or seniors to make connections in their local communities and put their service ideas into action during the summer break with support from the school. The fellows are tasked with adapting their projects to include the Loomis community upon their return to school.
After completing their summer projects, the Norton Fellows shared their experiences, including the challenges they faced, with the directors of the Norton Family Center for the Common Good, which runs the fellowship program. The Norton Family Center and other school offices this fall are helping the fellows to modify their projects for the Loomis community.
"Of all the benefits of the Norton Fellows' summer work, the most exciting is the experience gained by these future leaders," commented Eric LaForest, director of the Norton Family Center. "Having learned what it takes to design and implement projects at the grassroots level, the four Norton Fellows can now maximize the social good of their future endeavors."
Emily gained inspiration for her field day project from her personal connection to the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock (CHaD). A survivor of a traumatic fall as a child, Emily is a former patient and longtime hospital volunteer in the CHaD Ambassador program. Emily said she would always be grateful for the life-saving care and support she and her family received from the medical professionals and volunteers at CHaD during her time of crisis and recovery.
The kids' field day, which included favorites such as a water balloon toss and potato sack race, took place on July 13. Participants included children, volunteers, and two officers from the popular "Battle of the Badges" annual fundraising games staged each year between local police and firefighters. In addition to the field day, Emily devoted time to working with children confined to wards on arts and crafts activities.
"The [two goals] of my project were to plan a field day for previous CHaD patients [and] to cheer up and support patients at the hospital," Emily said. "Being able to give back [to CHaD] brings me immense joy."
Emily is making plans with Heather Henderson, director of Community Service at Loomis, to organize a similar effort with student volunteers at Hartford Hospital.
Elizabeth and Erika's project combined their passions for music and nature. Working in their hometown of Teaneck, N.J., the sisters created a variety of percussion instruments from natural and reclaimed materials with assistance from friends, neighbors, and family. They enlisted the help of a professional percussionist to help craft working instruments out of copper pipes, blocks of wood, and recycled bamboo.
The project took several weeks to put in place and culminated in a celebration welcoming the local community to view and enjoy the new "harmony garden" recreational space. Elizabeth and Erika organized a Family Music Fair in the conservancy on August 28, which featured a musical "petting zoo" for children to play instruments and a tent for families to create their own. Well-known local musicians, including jazz artist Jon Faddis, percussionist Jimmy Musto, and bassist James Ilgenfritz, performed while visitors joined the jam session in the harmony garden. The fair was well-attended thanks in part to Erika and Elizabeth's innovative community outreach through local parenting blogs. Eric LaForest attended with his toddler son as well.
Alexa Marques, executive director of the non-profit Teaneck Conservancy, itself an environmental reclamation project built on a former dump site, said she was pleased with the project and the celebration. The harmony garden is very much in alignment with the mission of the conservancy, she said.
"The fair was really rewarding, seeing people from the community come out and participate with our project," Erika reflected.
"I feel like I learned a lot about staying organized, taking risks, and communicating efficiently," added Elizabeth.
The two sisters will be on a team of students for Gaining Ground, an initiative to set up working gardens at elementary schools near Loomis. With support from the William and Alice Mortensen Foundation, Gaining Ground, still in its early planning stages, is a collaborative effort of the Loomis Agriculture and Community Service programs. The Herman sisters look forward to contributing their experience in event planning and promotion gained from their Norton Fellowship.
Anna's project was inspired by Loomis's focus on writing and by the work of the not-for-profit organization 826 National, which provides leadership and resources for improving student reading and writing skills in under-resourced areas. After developing a purposeful and engaging curriculum, Anna worked with Gail Zeiba, head of the Children's Department at the Willimantic Public Library, to identify families with interest in participating in an enrichment program. Anna conducted the program in two two-week sessions in July and August at the library, meeting with a small group of students six times during each session. In total, six children ranging from grades 2 through 8 participated in the workshops.
The process of setting up a service project of this scope presented a number of challenges, Anna said, but in tackling them, she adjusted her expectations. Getting buy-in from the families she hoped to serve and keeping the interest and attention of the students were among the challenges she surmounted, and the project was a success. Anna said she was encouraged when a parent of one of the students asked if she would offer a workshop again in the future.
"What began for me as a passion ... to educate students on the joys of creative writing somehow branched off into this fascinating realm of demographic study," reflected Anna. "It was not until I entered the classroom on the first day that I discovered just how difficult [making] an impact of this nature would be."
Anna plans to use her summer experience working with Sally Knight, director of Writing Initiatives at Loomis, to develop a creative writing enrichment outreach program for advanced students from local elementary schools.
The Norton Fellows' original ideas and what they were able to accomplish in the course of their projects impressed Molly Pond, associate director of the Norton Family Center, and Eric.
"While each of these Fellows was following her passion, she also pushed herself well outside of her comfort zone, modeling for other students what it takes to turn ideas into realities," Molly noted.
