Community Corner
Letter to the Editor: Local 8th Grader Says Thank You
The following letter to the editor was submitted by Leslie Levesque, Director of Admissions at The Phoenix School.
Dear Editor,
The 3rd-8th graders at The Phoenix School hosted their annual Haunted Happening celebration for all kids in Salem to come and celebrate Halloween. This is one of the big community service projects that The Phoenix School does for the city of Salem. We have a costume parade, a public party for all kids aged 3 through 12, and a party for some of the nursery schools in Salem.
On Saturday, October 20, little kids gathered at Salem Common and waited for the costume parade to start. Led by Officer O'Donnell, kids paraded through the streets of Salem in costumes galore. It was fun to see all of the great costumes. When they finally arrived at the judging table a surprise awaited them; three judges, volunteers Malia Griffin, Erin Griffin, and Ellen Dunn, dressed in curled powdered wigs with long flowing robes. Groups of six kids at a time followed a Phoenix student to the judging stand, to be judged. At the end a few lucky kids with the best costumes won prizes for their costumes.
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Following the parade, kids gathered at The Phoenix School to play some of the fun games that the Phoenix 3rd-8th graders made. The games were really mini-golf greens loaned by The Massachusetts Coalition For The Homeless. The older kids had to do a lot of math, measuring, drawing, and building to make motorized, moving obstacles and stationary obstacles for those mini-golf games. I made a game this year called Franken-Seals that consisted of sea based obstacles and one very cool electrically powered obstacle; a speed machine. When the ball went under a spinning wheel, it would get grabbed by the treads and get shot forward. Other games included a spinning wolf, an alligator opening and closing its mouth, an elevator pipe, a kicking kangaroo, and an ocean wave moving with the tide.
There were also crafts that younger kids could make, like Ghostly Gators, Super Super Natural Squids, Beastly Boars, Crazy Kangaroos, Creepy Crawly Critters, and Franken-Seals. The school cannot take all of the credit, since they had a lot of help from their generous sponsors who donated the money so they could buy the materials to make the games and crafts. On behalf of The Phoenix School, thank you so much to all of our sponsors this year: Mary Ann Lyons Salem, Quadrant Health Strategies Beverly, Clarke Brothers Salem, EMR Drywall Salem, Napa Auto Parts Salem, Kensington-Stobart Gallery Salem, Sharon Foods Boston, Salem Renewal Salem, Salem Inn Salem, Second Life Exhibits Lynn, Georgia's Pizza Salem, Viktoria Talebian DMD Salem, Four Seasons Sunroom Beverly, and Minit-Print Inc. Salem The Phoenix School loves contributing to Salem’s Haunted Happening by creating a non-scary party for the kids of Salem.
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Sincerely,
Jonathan, grade 8
EarlyAct President
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