Wood Hill Middle School held a "field day" for its sixth- and seventh-graders Tuesday to celebrate the school community's work at raising more than $1,000 to feed the hungry.
At the beginning of the year, Principal Patrick Bucco challenged the staff to go out in the community and identify a need. Once teachers identified the need, they were asked to try to create an action plan with Wood Hill Middle students to be part of the solution.
Staff members Stacey Consiglio and Laurie Farrell visited Cor Unum, a meal center in Lawrence.
"We were inspired by the great work done by so many committed people and the immense need for resources. We, with the PE teacher, Mrs. [Susan] Rodgers volunteered at Cor Unum as well. The statistics regarding the number of homeless and hungry people living so close to us was disturbing and motivating to all of us, students included. Thus, we became 100 percent involved in this cause," according to Farrell.
The school organized two dodgeball tournaments and accepted donations. On Friday, it had a talent show where it announced to the students that Wood Hill Middle had achieved its goal of $1,000. Organizers of field day and the dodgeball tournaments were Laurie Farrell, Stacey Consiglio Jimmy Saalfrank and Susan Rodgers.
"Jim Saalfrank, our PE teacher and also an organizer of Field Day, agreed to dress up as a beauty queen at the talent show and the students went wild. We will have a dunk tank at field day and were able to collect the last $250 selling tickets to help us reach our goal," according to Farrell.
Field Day was expected to begin after an all-school cookout, and include an obstacle course and disc jockey. Students were grouped according to their "crew" groups and the day's activities were to be crew-based or team building activities.
