Hawk’s Eye: News from Mill Pond Elementary School

By Karen Sattler
Special to the Houlton Pioneer Times
    In less than two weeks, we will have celebrated another Christmas and will be looking forward to a new year — 2012. We will all have celebrated the return of our troops from Iraq, and many of us will be reflecting on a year that held surprises, disappointments, achievements and moments that showed us there is still good in the world. If you haven’t experienced one of those moments, let me share one with you now.
    Fifth-grade students at Mill Pond School are in the midst of a food drive to benefit local food pantries.  This is the ninth year that students have taken on this activity. They begin with reading “It’s Our World, Too,” a story about two children who do things for the underprivileged around them.
    That first year, students responded by asking if they could do something like that for our own community. They set a goal of collecting 1,000 food items, but fell just short of that goal. The following year, the students had the same request. So a tradition was started.
    Decorated collection boxes are distributed to each classroom and the items are collected and counted each week while the running total is displayed on a tote board. In talking with former fifth-grade teacher Vivian Hynick, I asked her what she felt was the most lasting effect of being involved in a community service project like this.
    “I believe it made the students realize that there might be someone sitting beside them in a class who would benefit from a food drive,” she replied.
    Sonya Swallow, current fifth grade teacher, added a little more. “We take the children all together to drop off our collection to the food pantry. Mildred Madigan has taken the time to show the kids just what each family is given when they come in.  That vision of seeing two grocery bags of food and knowing it may be some time before a family is able to have more, has been a real eye-opener for many of the kids.” 
    After they leave the food pantry, the students all gather at Mrs. Swallow’s home for a Christmas story, a snack, and a time of caroling. 
    Molly Veysey, a student at Hodgdon High School, remembers doing this as a fifth grader. “I don’t think I realized until after we left the food pantry, just how much people needed the things that we brought in. It also made me realize how much I had myself and helped to inspire me to continue to be involved in like projects,” Molly shared.
    Maybe you have a box of macaroni and cheese or a few canned goods you could contribute. Would you send them in with a student or stick them on a bus for delivery to the school? You also have the option to drop any non-perishable items directly to the school to be added to the fifth grade collection. In a time of need, wouldn’t it be wonderful for these students to finally reach their goal of 1,000 items?
    Swallow has been a fifth grade teacher at Mill Pond School for 14 years. She and Matt have a son, Daniel and they share their home with Bruiser, the cat, and Gunner, the family dog. Having had the opportunity to snorkel in the ocean while on a cruise, her idea of the perfect dream vacation would be any place with hot sun and sandy beaches!
    A personal highlight in Mrs. Swallow’s life was to have the privilege of visiting Haiti in August of 2011.  She traveled as part of a humanitarian group to spend time and teach local children Bible stories and of God’s love for them. 
    “I came away with so many blessings and a heart for those children,” she said.  This trip led her to be a small part of the Strong Tower Orphanage Project, which will soon be building an orphanage in the very area she visited.
    Would you take a moment to think of how you might reach out to someone during the holidays? We need to start by being the change we want to see in the world!