Back row, left to right: Dayna Britland, Taryn Kubik, Franky Tangredi, Anna Pless and Charlie Sullivan; front row: Meghan Main (left) and Diana Tereshchuk. (Photo submitted)
HUNTINGTON – Seven Gateway students—one from each of the district’s member towns—were appointed as “Ambassadors” to Project 351, and began a year of service on Saturday, January 26 with a trip to Boston.
Representing Gateway Regional Jr. High School and its 7 towns were 8th graders Dayna Britland (Worthington), Taryn Kubik (Blandford), Meghan Main (Middlefield), Anna Pless (Chester), Charlie Sullivan (Huntington), Franky Tangredi (Montgomery) and Diana Tereshchuk (Russell).
Project 351 was started by Governor Deval Patrick, with a vision of strengthening the Commonwealth through a new generation of service leaders. Organized under the values of compassion, commitment, humility, kindness and generosity of spirit, the event united 8th grade service “exemplars” from every city and town in Massachusetts to launch a “year of community service, leadership development and enrichment.”
Gateway students and Guidance Counselor Richard White met up with other Western Mass Ambassadors and chaperones in Northampton, where they boarded a 7 a.m. Peter Pan bus. Students arrived at the State House in Boston, where they were greeted by City Year volunteers. Governor Patrick gave an opening address to those assembled in the Hall of Flags.
From there, students divided into groups to complete volunteer service throughout the Boston Area. Pless and Sullivan volunteered at the Pine Street Inn, a large homeless shelter, where they made cards and baked apple pies for the tenants. Britland and Main went to the Greater Boston Area Food Bank, where they sorted frozen food and packed up weekend meals for hungry children. Tangredi and Tereshchuk went to the Hannigan School, where Franky prepared answer cards for MCAS test preparation activities, and Diana made stress balls (balloons stuffed with flour) for student use. “It was a pretty messy job,” she admitted, adding that many of the balloons were overstuffed and burst. This left Kubik as the only Gateway ambassador to go to “Cradles to Crayons”, where she was part of a student team that cleaned and sorted donated shoes for distribution to people in need.
The overall numbers were impressive: 5800 pounds of frozen meat was sorted at the food bank, and over 1200 bags of weekend food were packed. Over 600 cards were made for the residents of the Pine St. Inn, and 35 apple pies were baked. The goal at Cradles to Crayons was to prepare 730 pairs of shoes, but they broke that milestone with 952 pairs. Only the stress ball project seemed to fall a little short of their 200 item goal (probably due to the number that broke, explained Tereshchuk).
Students had lunch at their volunteer sites, and were able to interact with and begin friendships with students from other parts of the state. Several reported having pen pails and corresponding via email. Following their day of service, they returned to the State House for a pasta dinner and a celebration, which featured “a party that included 351 cookies”.
Students are still receiving inspiring messages from the event organizers, and are now charged with organizing a service project in their own communities this year.
The Gateway Guidance Department supports student-led service projects using the DoSomething.Org framework.
