Connecting With Our Community - Uppers
The Uppers have been working with people outside of our school community to teach, learn, and grow. There have been several opportunities for our students to leave an impact on the world around them, and we are excited to share them with you. Although we have had a very successful Community Service elective for the past two years, this trimester felt like a good time to branch out beyond our school community.
Stone Soup Café
The students brainstormed ways to work with the Greenfield community, and one of the first things they came up with was helping to feed others. The schedule for serving meals didn’t line up with our class time, so the Director of Community Engagement, Sarah Hillier, asked us to make spring greeting cards to be delivered with 121 meals. We were thrilled when Executive Director and Chef, Kirsten Levitt, offered to come to our school and tell us the history and progress of Stone Soup Café.
Letters to Kirsten:
Dear Kirsten,
Thank you for coming to teach us about Stone Soup! It’s so cool how long you’ve been working there. I also think it’s cool how you make foods from different cultures! I like the name of the café. It’s really awesome that you are able to help feed everyone that comes no matter how much they can pay. I also like how you have a little market and that you get your food from local farms!
Thank you for all you do!
Tess
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Dear Kirsten,
It was so enlightening to hear you lecture us about the social entrepreneurship model that you lead Stone Soup Café with. I thought it was inspiring how you really engage with the community, from sitting with customers while they eat to letting them choose the name of the organization. Since 2009-2010, when Bernie Glassman started serving people with dignity in mind, the staggering number of meals you serve weekly illustrates your generosity. Thank you also for answering me and my classmate’s questions in such detail. I hardly knew what you guys do over there until your visit.
Keep it groovy,
Owen
7th grader at The Greenfield Center School
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Dear Kirsten,
Thank you for coming to the Uppers and talking to us about your experience with the Stone Soup Café. It was highly illuminating to learn about yourself and the history of The Café. It was particularly interesting to learn that The Stone Soup Café was called The Let All Eat Café in Montague because I’ve heard of The Café but I never knew that it was called something else other than The Stone Soup Café. I also thought it was interesting that the The Stone Soup Café
has a social entrepreneurship and gives the same meals and service no matter what you do or don’t pay. I think that’s a good way of making good food accessible for everyone in the community.
Yours in fellowship,
Milo
Greenfield Rehabilitation
The Community Service elective also wanted to do crafts with senior citizens. We reached out to several organizations in town and got a response from Greenfield Rehabilitation’s Activities Director, Rhiannon Stafford-Wolfram. Rhiannon requested that we research several Easter crafts and send them to her so that she could select the one that would be most accessible for her residents. The students worked to prepare the craft by making pre-cut shapes with the understanding that many residents would be non-verbal and/or have a challenging time using scissors. For some of our crafters, we used the hand-over-hand method to help with glue sticks and drawing. Although students found some of the experience difficult, overall they saw the joy that they brought to the rehab center that day.
Diggity Dogs
The final organization we partnered with was Diggity Dogs, a dog training facility that places psychiatric, medical alert, and mobility dogs. We hit the ground running during our first visit in March. Students were taught several commands including sit, down, stay, and stand. Instructors gave them clickers and kibble pouches to reward the dogs when they were compliant. Uppers got to work with both 4-month-old puppies and older dogs, and saw the difference very quickly! The puppies often required brain breaks that consisted of petting and cuddling in between training sessions. The older dogs were more disciplined, but just as playful and cute! Last week the students took turns hiding a cell phone in one room while a dog was behind a closed door in another room. We were all pleasantly surprised when the dog returned and located the phone 4 times in a row!
Henia Lewin
Our most recent community connection was with Professor Henia (Henny) Lewin, a child survivor of the Holocaust. MA. She resides in Amherst, MA and turned 85-years-old this year. She continues to travel to various locations to share her story with people of all ages. Henia’s story begins in Lithuanian where she describes her family and their day-to-day life. It wasn't long before she began to talk about being hidden underneath a staircase and smuggled out of the ghetto in a suitcase. At times, Henny became teary as she spoke of her family members, the hate, hunger, and death. Parents, students, teachers, and administrators were enthralled by her storytelling and clung to her every word. We found ourselves still seated after an hour and a half of deep listening and soon realized we were well into lunchtime, something that seemed like a luxury after hearing her speak. If you don’t know Henny’s story, please take the time to learn more. Pictures and information regarding Henia Lewin and her family can be found online and at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Student Reflections:
I was affected by hearing Henny’s story because of her storytelling. My head was thinking about the connections between my one ancestor and her. My heart was thinking about how amazing she is.
-Meyer
The holocaust was about people hating on jews. There are still people hating on other people but it isn't jews, its immigrants and lgbtq people. I feel like if this keeps happening, we might even experience the same thing which sounds like going back in time.
-Damaris
I imagined all the horror and I felt so sad for all the fallen and how scary it would be. It made no sense that a human being would do that to one another. If I was alive at that time I would have probably tried to stand up to the Nazis.
-Finn
Another memorable part of the story is when she thought she had a dream of her mom kissing her in the night but it turns out it actually happened.
-Madax
After hearing Henny’s story it made me think lots of things. I imagine that it would have been a terrible and scary time especially for a toddler. I am amazed at how Henny persisted, pretending other people were her parents when they really weren't. It was incredible how she waited for so long, almost two years for her parents to get her. It was also incredible to hear all the hard work that her mother did, smuggling dozens and dozens of children out of the ghetto.
-Millie