For the past five years, ELHS has hosted an Extravaganza on the day before our December holiday break. The Extravaganza is essentially a telethon featured on TVs throughout the school and on Public TV. The purpose is to raise money for a worthy cause. The planning of the Extravaganza is a time intensive project and is usually managed through a group of students in conjunction with a graded WISE project.
This past year, our community has been rallying to support a very special young lady in town who is fighting a courageous battle to defeat cancer. A group of students were so impressed with her courage and determination that they wanted to contribute to Maddie's Wish Fund. Maddie and her family had generously requested that people wishing to help out should send toys and raise funds for other children fighting cancer, rather than give to Maddie directly. Normally, the Extravaganza is the main event of the day, but in the spirit of community service, this WISE group wanted to incorporate projects that would serve and touch as many people in our community as possible.
The WISE group consisted of General Managers: Kathryn Taylor, Rachel Uricchio and Megan Dugan, Graphic Designer: Jillian Eller and Photographer: Lauryn Eberle. One of the requirements of the WISE project is to incorporate something that you are interested in pursuing as a future career. In taking on these roles, each WISE participant was able to gain experience in their desired field.
In addition to the events on December 23rd, the girls ran a pasta supper with the help of the Niantic Rotary, and a Dunk Tank during lunch. Thanks to Mr. Susi, Mr. Provost, Mr. Mahon, Mr. Bagos, Mr. Nazzaro and Mrs. Carney-Brush for being so willing to sit on the dunking board and become a target!
On the day of the Extravaganza, everybody in the school wore a bright orange T-shirt as a show of solidarity. How amazing it was to view the sea of orange when the school community was working in the Commons area! Students were split up into groups of Freshmen/Sophomore and Junior/Seniors. While the Juniors/Seniors were watching their portion of the Extravaganza talent, the Freshmen/Sophomore group was busy in the Commons working on community services projects and vice versa. The community service portion began with a video to highlight cancer awareness and featured Maddie and her sister and friends singing the song Stand by You by Rachel Platten. The community service projects consisted of creating fleece blankets for the Yale Children's Hospital, writing notes of gratitude and support for active veterans and creating reindeer ornaments and snowflakes to brighten up area nursing homes. In all, 173 Blankets were delivered to Yale Children's Hospital and $2500 was raised for Maddie's Wish Fund!
The entertainment provided by participants in the Extravaganza was extra special! Acts ranged from dancing and singing to magic and comedy. A good time was had by all and lots of good work was completed that day by the entire student body.
The entire project took hundreds of hours to plan and the group was very thankful for the generous donations provided through our Printshop run by Rachel Redding (material for blankets and the orange t-shirts) and the Niantic Rotary (money and volunteers for the Pasta Supper). In an email to the staff the following day, Mrs. Carney-Brush thanked the following staff members for their help:
Rachel Redding, Matt Laconti, Shannon Saglio, Jen D’Elia, Rachel Michaud, Kim Thompson, Freda Gianakos, Anthony Maiese, Karin Carlson, Sue Johnston, Grant Place, Joanna Hildebrand, Mat O'Grady, Linda Foote, and Lauren Allyn.
The WISE group was very pleased with the outcome and their wish to highlight the positive character of our school community was accomplished to the highest degree. The project was supervised by Faculty member Jen Carney-Brush and the outcome was a great success. Well done Katie, Rachel, Megan, Jillian and Lauryn!
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