Sunderland Elementary School

Dear Sunderland Families and Friends:
I want to take a moment to acknowledge a special project that is taking place just outside here at the Sunderland School. It started as an idea and is turning out to be a lesson for us all. In the end when this project is complete, we may all learn a thing or two about service and sacrifice.
Of course, I’m writing about the Legacy Pavilion that the Sixth Grade Class has decided to gift to our school and its community. 
If my history is right, this idea was borne out of a challenge.  The Sixth Grade had raised funds in anticipation of a host of activities and graduation costs that they knew they would encounter throughout their final year here.  After much discussion around how to spend some of the funds and much of their time during the final push towards graduation, the sixth graders and their parents came back to the idea of designing, constructing and then gifting an outdoor structure that would provide an opportunity to host classes, provide a setting to have lunch in, stand as a unique space for celebrations and remain a breezy spot to take shelter from the sun.
Thus the Pavilion was born or at least conceived!
Parents dove in with everything they had and thank goodness they had something left, after already doing so much on behalf of their kids throughout the school year. Some worked with architects and draftsmen, some knocked on doors and created spreadsheets, some baked and many, many lent their labor.
In some ways and only over time and experience, I have learned not to be surprised by this kind of effort from our parents here in Sunderland. There has not been a single week that has gone by in my nearly three years here, when I didn’t witness with my own eyes the extraordinary lengths that parents in Sunderland will go to support their children and this school. So I wasn’t surprised by the Herculean effort that took place over the last month as the Pavilion Plan was drawn up and forwarded to your principal, the School Committee and the Board of Selectmen, receiving approval on all fronts.
What has surprised me is the way the children--the Sixth Grade students themselves-- have embraced this project as a means of giving back to a school that they clearly love. The opportunity to participate in what is essentially a service project has propelled these soon-to-be graduates into roles of responsibility and leadership. As teachers I must admit that this is a spot that we strive to guide them towards. In this instance however, much of the motivation towards this has been from the students themselves and for that I will always be so grateful to them for seizing the moment when it arrived. I am also acutely aware of the timing of all of this and for that too I will always be grateful, for I believe they are assuming their rightful place at the head of their class and in front and behind their school, at a time when the rest of us are preparing to say so long to them. I am confident that they will leave us prepared to take on other missions and lead other projects in other places. This too is a gift.
Life is a funny thing. You can plan and plan and still not always get it right.
Today, as I walked past the still drying cement floor that was poured out back, a thought came to my mind which I shared with all of the sixth graders when I returned inside:
Once built and for many years to come, so many of us will enjoy the benefit of this Pavilion; its shelter and its serenity. We will all enjoy what this structure offers us in good weather and in bad. That is the service this project provides. This is the sacrifice they have made.
For the Sixth Graders themselves however, I reminded the group this morning, that it started with them. It’s true, I told them, that each will soon leave us and move on to their next school in a different setting. However, they must remember that with this gift, they will always be here with us; in the foundation and in the rafters, in the creases and the cracks and for years and perhaps decades to come, they will always have a spot, just out back, that they can call their own. This is what I shared with them after I thanked them for sharing so much with us.

If you aren’t fortunate enough to have a sixth grader this year, share this column with your own student and ask them how they are going to leave their own mark here when it’s their turn. I can’t wait to hear their response!
See you in the halls and very soon, I’ll see you out back.
Tim Merritt