4th-graders get chance to touch history

HAMPDEN – Fourth-graders in Martha Stepp’s class at Weatherbee School sat on the floor at the front of the classroom last week.

Some had small quilts wrapped around their shoulders, or blankets, or even an afghan.

The occasion was the annual Community Reading Day, a time for reporters, police personnel, lawyers, photographers, athletes, teachers from other schools and other people to visit classrooms and read aloud a special book.

I’ve been reading in Mrs. Stepp’s class for several years now – a celebration of our friendship, of our boys growing up together, of her having been the third-grade teacher for one of my sons.

The book she chose this year was special, indeed – “The Quilt Story,” written by Tony Johnston and illustrated by Tomie de Paola.

It is the story of a beloved quilt belonging many years ago to the young Abigail. Generations later, the quilt is rediscovered in an attic, and means just as much to another little girl.

After reading time, I showed the fourth-graders the treasure from my family, the 108-year-old patchwork quilt hand-stitched by my great-great-great-grandmother Lovina Leighton Moore.

It was just a quilt top when I received it from my Aunt Flora, I told them, and might never have become a quilt without the help of Sally Bates, who completed the project with her own tiny stitches.

Lovina’s quilt has been shown to a variety of organizations. But I will never forget how I felt watching those 9- and 10-year-olds step forward to “touch history,” running their fingers over the patchwork made more than a century ago.

Later in the morning, the youngsters put on a science fair, displaying their projects on everything from magnets, capillary action, carbon dioxide and how lungs work to what makes the night sky red.

Weatherbee has participated in Community Reading Day for many years. Other teachers taking part, and their readers, were:

Christy Whitehouse, with Peter Macone reading “The Raft.”

Angela Pratt, with Denise Hodsdon reading “Five Little Monkeys Wash the Car.”

Peggy Klotzle, with Morna Rawcliffe reading “L Is for Lobster.”

Candis Penley, with Sgt. Dan Stewart reading “The Quiltmaker’s Gift.”

Meagan Williams, with Lena Caron reading “Stellaluna.”

Shannon Peterson, with Pam Smith reading “Kiana’s Iditarod.”

Storie Brown, with Andy Anderson reading “Cocoa Ice.”

Robin Balentine, with Jim McCarthy reading “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.”

Renita Ward, with Kristen McAlpine reading “The Mud Pony” and “Arrow to the Sun.”

Donna Megquier, with Jean Camuso reading “Racso and the Rats of NIMH.”

Susan O’Brien, with Debbie Lozito reading “Everybody’s Somebody’s Lunch.”

David McQuilkin, with Katie Donovan reading “Knots on a Counting Rope.”

Linda Hake, with Susan Carpenter reading “The Chimpanzees I Love.”

Mary Smith, with Susan Lassadre reading “So You Want to Be President.”

Pupils in Martha Stepp’s class are: Doug Annis, Donald Arsenault, Grant Aylward, Dan Binekey, Ryan Blake, Lillian Everhart, Jordyn Gilio, Zachary Hurd, Barbara Ireland, Brittany Luetjen, Margaret McCullough, Elizabeth Pedersen, Tyler Poll, Dylan Ross, Kendra Sockabasin, Andrew Sturm and Lindsay Thornton.