By TORY DENIS
[email protected]
BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. — Bellows Falls Middle School students and community members came out to the school’s auditorium for a Talent Night on Tuesday evening in support of the Destination Imagination Fund. Destination Imagination is one of the after-school programs, part of the school’s AIM Club, in support of creativity and the arts.
Though a tally had not yet been taken on Tuesday, the event raised approximately $160, with admission of $1 at the door, toward next year’s club members being able to participate in an annual state improvisation competition.
“It’s a great program,” said Cyndi Miller, coordinator for Achieve, Inspire & Motivate After-school Program.
The talent show featured BFMS students dancing, singing and performing in a variety of musical and comedy acts, with several bringing standing ovations from the audience.
The students put on 17 performances through the evening, with snacks and water also for sale in a classroom, all to benefit the school program. The after-school program and Destination Imagination are overseen locally through the help of Miller, Orianna Baez, and other staff and student helpers.
Five of the school’s seven club members, Trinity Byfield, Terra Carpenter, Kadence LaCroix, Melissa Durant, and Isabelle Hammond, spoke to the audience of about 160 during intermission about how the after-school program and their work with the Destination Imagination program helps foster friendship, problem-solving and independence, along with encouraging the arts.
“We learned teamwork, and how to solve things without planning ahead and without arguing,” Melissa said on Tuesday.
Isabelle added that the after-school program helps the teens strike up new friendships when they are able to attend competitions with other students.
A team from BFMS competes each year in Vermont, putting on an improv performance of a skit, with the theme provided by competition organizers. The student team won first place last year, but were not able to raise enough funds to attend the state improv competition despite fundraising efforts, Miller said. The program is partially grant-funded, but some funding must be raised through local efforts. A BFMS team composed of eighth-graders won second place this year, and went to the state competition, in Burlington, Vermont in March.
The funds raised on Tuesday will go toward next year’s team potentially going in March 2019 to the state Destination Imagination competition.
The Destination Imagination program is “a fun, hands-on system of learning that fosters students’ creativity, courage and curiosity” through open-ended academic challenges in the fields of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), fine arts and service learning.
Participants learn patience, flexibility, persistence, ethics, respect for others and their ideas, and the collaborative problem solving process, to develop opportunities that “inspire the global community of learners” to use diverse approaches in applying 21st century skills and creativity, all according to the website. Teams may showcase their solutions at a tournament.
The AIM Club also offers several other clubs — all free to the students — that “run the whole gamut,” such as a student newspaper, the Girls in Math and Science (GEMS) Club, and more, Miller said. The clubs meet every day from 3 to 5 p.m., and also include a five-week summer program. Students entering fifth grade through the end of eighth grade can all participate.
For more information, or to support the clubs’ fundraising efforts, contact the Bellows Falls Middle School.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.