A celebration of children and history

The Middlesex County Historical Society held a reception to honor the participants and winners of the 2009 William E. Sheedy Memorial History Contest. The event brought about 100 people to the galleries and gardens of the General Mansfield House on Main Street, on a lovely late spring Thursday evening.

The contest challenged third graders in Middletown to prepare a report about one of their ancestors. This year there were 196 entries, from which 16 were selected as winners, each of whom received $25 from the Historical Society. The winners were, from Wesley School, Richard Nakaksuka, from Snow School, Avivah Malin, from St. Mary's School, Spencer Appell, from Lawrence School, Taylor Conner, Danny Flynn, Katelyn Cartwright, DylanJoel Lineberger, and Aparajita Kashyap, from Moody School, Alina Williamson, Mason Moua, and Dylan Drescher, and from Farm Hill School, Victoria Brenchak, Allison Molski, Andrew Palozie, Matthew Bjorlund, and Vincent Gritzuk.

Assistant Superintendent of Schools, John Hennelly celebrated the writing of Middletown school children, and pointed with pride to the ability of these young people to "tell other people's stories." Each child had put together a binder with extensive writing, along with copies of photographs, letters, official documents and other historical artifacts documenting the life of their ancestor. And what wonderful stories these children had told, ranging from Aparajita's tale of Grandfather Dadu who received a commendation from Indira Gandhi, to Mason's tale of his father's education in Laos, to DylanJoel's stories about his grandfather Papa Tony.

In presenting the awards, Nancy Bauer, Secretary of the Historical Society, quoted excerpts from each of the winner's reports. Many of the children wrote movingly about the meaning that their ancestor had for them, and how much they had learned about their family from doing the research.