Throughout the year, Sharon Sorrette's second-grade class at the Dame School has been corresponding with pen pals at the Havenwood campus of Havenwood-Heritage Heights. As a special end-of-the-year treat for both groups, the second-grade class – along with Dawn Morris's first-grade class – traveled to Havenwood on June 3 to give a concert for their pen pals and any other residents who wanted to come and listen. At the conclusion of the concert, the students and residents (those in attendance numbered about 40) mingled – allowing the pen pals to meet each other and those who were not involved the chance to meet and talk with someone new.
The idea for the pen pals originated with Havenwood resident Margaret Haney. Haney said that she had always liked the idea of having pen pals at an elementary school. The aspect that most appealed to her was the opportunity to find something in common from generation to generation. Haney took the concept to Cy Sherman, a fellow resident who is a volunteer at Dame. Sherman got the ball rolling at Dame, and the result was 10 sets of pen pals.
According to Sherman, each month would produce two letters – one from the student, and one from the corresponding pen pal at Havenwood. Sorrette had nothing but good things to say about how the project turned out. She noted that it was a nice connection with the students' literacy studies at school, as well as just good general practice for writing letters. They were able to learn about things that the residents themselves experienced – in one specific case that Sorrette mentioned, the students were able to read about firsthand experiences in the rain forest while they were studying rain forests in class. Independent of educational value, Sorrette also said it was a nice connection to the community for the kids to experience.
As for the concert, it consisted of the students singing seven songs, ranging from the very silly “Alligator in the Elevator” to a medley of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and a jazzed-up version of the ABCs. These tunes actually all have the same melody, as Phil Hoefs explained to the residents. Hoefs, the music teacher at Dame, accompanied the students on piano and provided a lead-in to each song.
The rest of the concert was given over to several patriotic songs, all familiar to those in attendance. Hoefs told the residents that he teaches the students the patriotic songs so that they will grow up being patriotic and subsequently turn out to be good Americans.
The first was “America,” otherwise known as “My Country 'Tis of Thee,” which was then followed by “America the Beautiful.” Hoefs led into the latter by asking the residents if any of them had ever seen the Grand Canyon, which got a few hands raised in the audience. He went on to explain that the song was, in fact, inspired by such natural wonders as the Grand Canyon during a trip west taken by its writer, Katharine Lee Bates.
The next song was introduced by Hoefs in the form of a question – “How many of you remember Kate Smith?” After getting several nods from the crowd, he said that while the students were far too young to remember or even know it, Kate Smith became popular for her version of “God Bless America.” The students then put their own stamp on the old standard – maybe even giving Smith a run for her money.
To wrap up the patriotic songs, the classes sang the Woody Guthrie classic, “This Land is Your Land.” All throughout the patriotic part of the concert, Hoefs invited the residents to sing along with the songs they knew, and was able to get quite a few voices to chime in along with the students.
Once the concert was over, Sherman did a roll call of the pen pals from Havenwood, so that the students could find the resident whom they had written their letters to. As there were many others – both residents and students – who did not have pen pals, all of the students were encouraged to go out into the audience and talk to a resident or two. Being only 7 and 8 years old, the kids were understandably shy, but they quickly spread throughout the room. A few handshakes and even hugs were exchanged, and nearly all the students found themselves with someone to talk to.
This went on for several minutes before the kids were rounded up by their teachers to make the trek back to Dame, but not before taking as souvenirs the balloons that were used as decorations for the concert.
Due to the overall success of the pen pal program in its initial year, Sherman expressed her hope that it will continue in the years to come, a sentiment that she indicated was shared by all involved.
