Colegrove Summer Program Capped With North Adams Recreation
Mayor Jennnifer Macksey speaks with Drury intern Cypress Smith and artist Robert Fitzgerald at the summer program at Colegrove Park Elementary School.
The planes were paper, the buildings cardboard and Main Street was a hallway at Colegrove Park Elementary School, but the setup represented nearly two weeks of creative research and design by the pupils in the public schools' 21st Century Summer Program.
Local artist Robert Fitzgerald has been doing for summer camp five years, working with Grades 3 through 6.
"This has been an incredible summer," he said Thursday as children showed off their masterpieces to Mayor Jennifer Macksey.
"The idea really grew out of a project we did last year, which was ... [Grade 4 teacher] Emma Marino had an airplane competition, and so the students we had been working with cardboard in the art room. So we built a city to surround the runway.
"This year, when I asked her if she was going to do it, I said, 'Let's build North Adams.'"
He asked the students what was important and unique in North Adams, laughing that, of course, a lot of them went to fast food places.
"But then we started going a little bit deeper, like where do you like to hang out? Fish Pond and UNO Park and the school, and that some kids have actually been to the tunnel. Mass MoCA," he said. "They've done an incredible, incredible job. I'm so proud of them."
There was one McDonalds, but also three or four Jack's Hot Dogs, the Greylock War Memorial on a giant green mountain, Walmart and Big Y, the splash pad and skate board park, the school and the college, Freight Yard Pub and Pedrin's, the library and the Mohawk Theater. The children made shopping carts, picnic tables and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art included works by Sol LeWitt.
The event was a mix of creativity and physics as the children tried to make their planes go the farthest down the paper runway along the hall floor.
"This camp was so amazing that they really took a look of the fabric of North Adams and designed their own vision of everything from restaurant establishments to the splash park, and then to end with a runway when flying some airplanes," said the mayor. "It's just such a great thing how they're really learning about all the aspects of North Adams and what what we are, and they're our future.
"I'd be interested to see what they do when they're seniors in high school, and what they think of all these projects. So it was a great day, great great energy, but most importantly, a lot of learning and a lot of art. That's what makes me happy."
Macksey looked at each model and questioned the children on their thought process and how many had visited the places that were recreated.
Dahlia May recreated the Mohawk Theater and put picture of the soccer team up as the movie.
"When I'm on the bus, I pass the Mohawk Theater every day, and I really wanted to do it because that's like the building I know the best," she said.
Superintendent Timothy Callahan said about 50 to 60 children were at the weekday summer program at Colegrove, and another 80 or so at Brayton, where it first began. The high school hosts about 15 to 20, though that goes up when there's an art component.
"What the high school does is they also go to the farm program for the second half of the week," he said. "So there are students currently at the farm program from this age span who are not here, and then next week for two weeks, the high school, the middle high school students will go to the farm."
The farm program at Many Forks Farm in Clarksburg is a collaboration with the farm and Greenagers, a teen farming program headquartered in Pittsfield. The outdoor classroom gives children opportunities to learn about tool use, growing produce, nutrition, cooking and teamwork.
"We were doing something earlier today with elementary kids for presenting their passion projects and the luncheon that they had prepared, and then high school students will do a version in a couple weeks," Callahan said.
Fitzpatrick said he was impress by the diverse range of activities and outdoor sports the program delivers. "I feel very honored to work with this organization," he said.
Friday was the final day for this age group, which spent July playing engaged in hands-on science and art learning.
Tanner Macksey won the longest flight for his paper airplane, with a substantial assist from Owen Pikula, who tossed it in his absence.
"It's really fun working with the students. They're awesome, they loved doing this," said Marino, adding they'd done an egg drop competition earlier in the week."
The schools receive funding from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to hire paid interns for the summer program, like Drury High student Cypress Smith. She worked in the art room with the children.
"I loved every second of it. I really enjoy seeing them be so creative," she said. "It really made me so happy to see them all like working together on one thing and helping. They were so helpful with each other. Everyone was bonding over this one project, and it was really beautiful to see."
Tags: NAPS, summer programs,
