Canton’s Students Give Generously to their Community

by Lynn K. McMullin

     Last year at this time, two high school seniors, Chris Robataille and Ryan Abraham, made the news when their Senior Project raised over $20,000 for the Lance Armstrong Cancer Foundation and the two young men were selected to receive a Red Cross Good Samaritan award
     However, well before that, and since then, Canton’s students have regularly been acting as ‘samaritans’ by giving back to their community – often creating service projects of their own design, as Chris and Ryan did. From learning about and understanding the world around them, our students realize the ideal that together we can take action to change the lives of others less fortunate.
     Certain philosophies hold to the concept that acts of charity fall into a tiered structure. At the lowest level of giving are the actions that have little impact on us, such as throwing our change into the bucket under the McDonald’s drive-through window or buying a poppy from a Veteran. These acts, while nice, require little thought and little of our resources or time. At the higher levels of giving, we sacrifice more of our time, as well as the resources that are important to us, and we give to people without their knowledge and without any thought of personal reward beyond the act of giving itself.  As you look at what our students are accomplishing, you’ll proudly see that they do engage in these higher levels of giving. Their actions are thoughtful and varied.
      This week at the high school, CATA (Canton Adolescents Taking Action) made 15 plates of homemade cookies for the Canton Food Bank.  At the same time, their math classes are competing in an annual food drive for non-perishables which will be delivered by the carload to the food bank.  With the support of two teachers, Ms. Gabrielle Laux and Ms. Loreen Forastiere, the students have undertaken this project annually for 12 years, always making their delivery in plenty of time for the community’s holiday needs.
     At Cherry Brook Primary School, during their annual Book Fair, students and their families donated $300 to “Bucks for Books” to provide books for impoverished schools. Students also collected four boxes of non-perishables at Thanksgiving for the Jack Bannan Food Drive, and are currently bringing in mittens, hats, and unwrapped toys for Canton “Gifts of Love.” The teachers regularly donate $5.00 a month on “wear jeans day" which also goes to “Gifts of Love.”
     Several CHS students have been teaching computer skills to our senior citizens through the "Surfing for All Ages" program which was just completed at the high school.  This volunteer program bridges the generations through the mutual gifts of interest and time. Twenty sophomores pitched in and completed an extensive fall clean up for the Lowells. In return, the Lowells donated $400 to the Canton Food Bank in their honor. Fifteen students also volunteer regularly as mentors and tutors at Canton Intermediate and Cherry Brook.
     On November 11th, as part of their Veterans' Day activities, the Canton Middle School students in each advisory group went to the website http://www.anysoldier.com/, where they selected soldiers to whom they would write letters and mail care packages. The 19 advisory groups wound up with over 70 boxes loaded with letters from students and the kinds of things the soldiers had asked requested, items we often take for granted such as personal hygiene items, granola bars, soup, Band-Aids, and Chapstick. In return, the response from the soldiers has been equally amazing, with a couple of the soldiers writing a note to each and every child in an advisory group. One serviceman, Major Anthony Beatman, mentioned the thrill a young Iraqi girl got from receiving a backpack because the Iraqi children, particularly the girls, attend schools with no supplies. This week, the middle school is sending Maj. Beatman an additional 20 boxes of school supplies.
     During the first two weeks of November, Canton Intermediate School students also participated in Jack Bannan’s Farmington Valley Food Drive. Students and staff together collected over 2,057 pounds of non-perishable food items. That’s over 1 ton of food that students moved into the school and out again on its way to people who need it in these hard times. Currently, CIS students are engaged in a toy, book, and gift certificate drive for the Canton Chamber of Commerce.
     CIS has also started a new club called “Kids Care.” As their first project, they are collecting gently used books, toys, art supplies, puzzles, and blocks for children ages birth to age 5 for the Therapeutic Child Center.
     At Canton High School, two freshmen Autumn Magro and Shayla Durbois, pledged to go 30 hours without food to raise money to ease hunger in Africa. They began their fast at 8:00 a.m. on December 11th and ended it at 2:00 p.m. on the 12th.  Through pledges, at the end of their 30-hour fast they were able to donate over $400 to the World Vision Organization.  During the two days, the young women also spent time with the Salvation Army in Hartford wrapping presents for those in need and ringing bells at store fronts.
     Also at the high school, students and staff raised over $500 for Greg Mortensen’s “Pennies for Peace” program, supporting his Central Asia Institute which builds schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The National Honor Society collected school supplies for Hartford elementary schools and made holiday cards to send to senior citizens. The Student Council collected new, unwrapped toys as admission to their recent dance.  This group also adopted two local families through Avon Social Services’ "Adopt-A-Family" program.  For the holidays, the Student Council presented the families, via social services, with nearly 40 gifts!  The Student Council is also in the process of organizing a "team" for the Komen "Race for the Cure" in June of 2010.
     A relatively new student group at the high school is called “Be the Change,” and these students made 12 fleece blankets that were delivered to "My Sister's Place," a shelter for battered women and children in Hartford.
     For the past two years, Canton Intermediate School has had an ongoing vested interest in the Kilimanjaro Education Foundation through which they are helping to build a school. To raise the necessary $12,000, they have produced a CD, hosted volleyball competitions with Cherry Brook, held a 6th grade Talent Show, and participated in a basketball shoot-out, all to build a CIS classroom in their sister school in Oltoroto, Tanzania. The walls are up, the roof is on, and what remains is finish work, painting, and furniture. The students have raised $9,458 so far, and will have completed their goal in the next few months. Once the classroom is done, CIS will receive pictures of their sister school classroom.
      The Middle School’s SFS (Substance Free Students) and Team Hybrid (a group of students from 7th and 8th grades) ran a canned food drive and sent 30 cartons of food Canton Food Bank.  In addition, the 8th grade team made sandwiches for "House of Bread" in Hartford, and about a dozen students (one or two students from each advisory group) traveled to Hartford with the teachers to make their delivery in time for lunch.

          All this generosity in the first four months of school! 
  Happy Holidays -- watch for the Blog to resume on January 8th!

School Closings and Delayed Openings: When? Who? and How?

by Lynn K. McMullin

To delay? Or, not to delay? To close? Not to close? When the weather is foul, parents, teachers, and the community at large often wonder how, when, and by whom the decision to close schools or to remain open is made. While one single factor is at the heart of each decision – student safety! – there still remains the question, how does a district determine when the roads are safe?

How are the weather-related decisions made?

First of all, I do set-up the AlertNow early notification system to teachers’ and students’ homes, and it is my voice you hear… but, I don’t make the decision.   In fact, no single individual makes the decision to cancel school or delay school’s opening.

The final call is a collaborative one usually made around 4:30 a.m. by Superintendent Kevin Case, Dean Martel owner of Martel Transportation who bears direct responsibility for student bus safety, Walter LeGeyt, the Director of Public Works, and the on-duty police dispatcher who is in constant contact with the police officers on the road. These individuals are paying close attention to the road conditions, particularly in North Canton where many times, due to a difference in elevation, the roads are more treacherous.  Ideally, at 4:30 a.m., they try to predict what the driving conditions will be like two hours later when the buses will actually hit the roads.  However, sometimes the conditions either worsen or don’t improve as anticipated and a decision to delay or cancel comes at 5:30 a.m. or later.

Yes, there are times when Avon or Simsbury have school and Canton doesn’t; but every town’s bus routes and road conditions are different.  Yes, there are times when your route, or my route, to work might be safely passable, but our older high school students and our buses must navigate some very difficult roads in the hilly North Canton neighborhoods.

In every case, only one question factors into the decision – will our students be safe today?


How to get weather-related updates!

First, the AlertNow Early Notification System is set-up to make phone calls to teachers and students’ homes on the morning of a delay or cancellation. Once the decision is made, the phone call to teachers is arranged immediately, usually around 5:15 a.m.  Hartford students also receive their calls at this time, too, since some of these students catch the bus around 6:00 a.m.  A second of round of calls to Canton students’ families is scheduled for 6:20 a.m.

Second, most schools have set-up the AlertNow student records to include email. If that is the case for your family, you can turn down the phone and use your email instead.   In a few days, you will be able to send a note to your school and arrange for a second email address if you need one.  You can also arrange to receive an email notice by registering for e-notifications at http://www.ctweather.com.   Just follow the on-line directions.

Third, check our www.cantonschools.org webpage.  I use the scrolling bar at the top of the page to post delays, cancellations, and early closings.  It is updated as soon as I have set-up the AlertNow calls.

Finally, you can still listen for school delays and cancellations on the radio and television as follows: WTIC – 1080 or 98.6, WDRC – 102.9, Fox 61, WVIT 30, WTNH 8, and WFSB 3.

More about AlertNow!

Sometimes I get requests regarding the AlertNow Early Notification System from families wanting special arrangements – Can we receive our call at 6:00 a.m., instead of 6:20?  Can we receive a call for delayed openings, but not for cancellations?  Can we receive a call on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays only?  I would love to accommodate, but AlertNow is not set up that way.  It operates from a database using our district’s student information system, so I can isolate ‘logical groups’ already existing within the system.  I could isolate gender or birthdates, for example, but those fields wouldn't make sense for announcements.  However, I can select “all students” and “all teachers” as sub-groups. AND, I can also isolate students by their specific bus routes.  The bus route sub-group, for example, is what allows me to place a special call to Hartford students.  There is a down-side to this special call, however; because when I later make the 6:20 a.m. call to “all students,” these families get a second call from me. The same is true for teachers who are also parents of a Canton student – two calls, one at 5:15 and one at 6:20.

Even with a computer-based system like AlertNow, mistakes happen!  If you are not receiving your AlertNow call, please contact the school with the correct phone numbers.  This past Wednesday, I disconnected a cell phone belonging to an elderly woman in South Carolina who called back to say she “has no kids and was enjoying her weather down south very much!”  Our records had her cell phone number listed as belonging to one of our teachers, but it was an easy fix.  After Wednesday’s call, I was also able to provide information to our schools about four invalid phone numbers and 22 disconnected phones, thus enabling us to correct our contact information.  I also know based on our “delivery report” that 78% of the calls went to answering machines, 14% were answered live (including the woman in South Carolina), 6% were ‘live partials’ (meaning the person hung up on us), and the remaining 2% were busy, disconnected, or invalid numbers.

How can Senior Citizens Be More Active in our Schools?

by Lynn K. McMullin

At a recent Board of Education meeting, this question was posed by one of our guests, and it’s a good one: How can our senior citizens be more involved in our schools? We would love to include senior citizens in a variety of ways and with flexible schedules. Join us once a day, once a week, once a month, once a year! Sometimes, we even come to you with programs at the Senior Center and would love your input about what you’d like to see more often.


Rather than answer this question school-by-school, I’ve grouped the possibilities for involvement in the school by interests, such as mentoring or working with clubs. All the contact numbers for volunteering are at the bottom of this posting.

We DO need mentors for young people!

Cherry Brook Primary School (grades K – 3) would appreciate seniors during lunchtime to help our littlest students open their milk cartons and snack packages, to sit with them while they eat, to talk to them as grandparents would, to promote intergenerational conversations. Cherry Brook Primary would always welcome assistance with read-alouds in the classrooms and with art projects, and especially on days when indoor recess is a must. Or, senior volunteers might prefer to help in the hallways in the afternoon at bus-time, saying “goodbye” and “see you tomorrow” to our littlest guests.

Canton Intermediate School (grades 4 – 6) is always looking for more senior citizens to volunteer as Friday morning greeters. This is an ongoing tradition and the kids and teachers love it! There is also a program, through the town’s Senior Center, in which senior citizens pair up with students once a week in the Talented and Gifted Program to complete writing projects.

Canton High School would welcome seniors willing to serve as mentors and tutors to students, particularly in the Canton Alternative Academy where mentors might work with students on real-life skills such as interviewing, communicating in the workplace, providing customer service, and so on. Canton Alternative Academy meets in the afternoon – early evening (from 3:00 - 6:00) and compassionate, caring mentors could make a real difference.


Are you interested in playing chess with students?

All four schools expressed an interest in senior citizens helping out with or starting up a chess club. Last week’s blog mentioned the academic and social success that students at Vaux Middle School, Philadelphia, achieved through chess, so this is a very timely request. Chess gives kids what is called “intellectual capital,” as it builds critical thinking and problem-solving skills. And, it’s fun!

Cherry Brook has an established Chess Club with about 80 students, and last year three students went on to state-level competition. The Cherry Brook Club, in its 7th year, is starting up again on January 13th, and it meets every Wednesday from 3:30 to 4:15 until March 31st.

We’d love to continue the success of Chess Club at CIS and the middle and high schools, so an individual or group of volunteers willing to start up a Chess Club would be an asset.  A Bridge Club or Cribbage Club is another possibility, and afterschool in the high school library is the ideal time and location for a new club to meet.

Why not attend student events? You’re invited!

Senior citizens are always welcome at our band and choral concerts, athletic events, and school plays. The high school Chamber Singers has an all-day concert tour around Canton on December 9th, and the full concert schedule is available on the high school website, by clicking on “Canton Music” and then “Music Calendar.” The PRISMS Concert is one highlight of the high school concert schedule. The evening is designed by the students and is always spectacular! This year’s PRISMS concert is scheduled for February 5th at 7:30 (rain date the 7th). Other events to watch for are the very popular “Concert in the Park” at Mills Pond on June 8th at 6:00 and the Senior Citizen Prom on June 10th at 3:00 in the Community Center.

The athletic calendar and daily events calendar are also good sources of information for inexpensive and fun events. Both calendar links are above this blog link on our webpage. For any of these events, you can also call the high school for a free ticket or even a ride, if you need one.

Have you considered auditing a course?

A course called “Surfing for Seniors” in which students taught seniors more about the Internet, just finished up at the high school. It met once a week on Wednesday afternoons. It will be offered again in the spring. But there are other interesting courses you might want to consider in areas such as technology education, art, and creative writing. High school courses held in the afternoon, during Periods E, F, and G, don’t rotate, so they meet at the same time every day. You might want to ask about courses held specifically during the afternoon.

For more information about any of these ideas, or if you have an idea of your own, please contact:


Tina McCarthy, Cherry Brook Primary School -- 693-7721
Lori Carlson, Canton Intermediate School -- 693-7717
Nan Bartlett, Canton Middle School -- 693-7712
Lisa Davidson, Canton High School -- 693-7707