Good Deed: Hartford Youths Reach Out To Seniors

On Friday, October, 1997 The Milken Family Foundation Festival for Youth was held at Frank T. Simpson-Waverly Elementary School on Waverly Street in Hartford's Northend. The Festival is a community service program that helps teach young people, particularly those residing in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods and those with special needs, that everyone can make a difference to the well-being of those around them. Students from around the country, ages 5-18, participate in the program. At Simpson-Waverly School, Marie Crump, Kathleen Register and Lorraine Wanzas' third grade classes participate in the community service. The Festival for Youth's creative community service projects are carried out by students throughout the school year and have included such activities as helping people with multiple handicaps, recording audio books for the blind and video tapes for the deaf. The project also promotes literacy through reading to young children, assistance to the elderly through visits and recording and publishing their oral histories, neighborhoods improvements through upgrading playground areas and recreational sites and by removing graffiti and painting murals, and by stimulating interest in the arts by giving dramatic and musical performances at local community centers and schools.

The Festival for Youth celebration at Simpson-Waverly was held outdoors on the school grounds. Teacher Kathleen Register was the Mistress of Ceremonies. Music was provided by the Simpson-Waverly Band under the direction of Tom Goba. Welcoming and greetings were extended by Principal Dr. James Thompson and Curriculum Specialist Deveria Berry. The Hartford Northend Senior Citizens and the Simpson-Waverly third graders were recognized for all their fine efforts in the program. Barbara Klein, the director of the Festival for Youth from the Milken Family Foundation made the official presentation to the seniors and students.

Among the guest speakers were Hartford Superintendent of Public Schools Dr. Patricia Daniel, Mayor Michael P. Peters, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Robert Furek, and Director of the Northend Senior Center Marvin Jones.

To conclude the day's activities, several third graders released balloons into the air with the assistance of teacher Deveria Berry. A reception and luncheon for the Northend Seniors followed the ceremony.