If You're Looking

Betty Mulholland in her role as a Boothe Park volunteer teaching children about various fibers and how they were used in early America.

Here are some great volunteer activites in which to lend a hand a make a difference.  If you have experience with other worthwhile volunteer activities, we can post them here.  Send the information to sweeleyp@gmail.com. For access to the web sites for organizations on this page, if clicking doesn't work, copy and paste into your browser.

Fairfield History Day, Saturday, April 6, 2019, is part of the National History Day Project. Read the info at left and consider becoming a judge for this very worthwhile event.

Connecticut History Day is a program for students in grades 6-12 that encourages exploration of local, state, national, and world history. Fairfield History Day is Saturday, April 4, 2020.  Our Co-president, Tony Andrade has been heavily inivolved in the local, state and national phases of History Day for several years. Check out his page: Tony Andrade. Think about being a judge.  Many judges are needed for this event, and judging is a very inspiring experience.  The accomplishments of the participating students in this extracurricular activity are truly AMAZING!!!  Click here to learn about the judging experience: (TB announced) Contact Tony (aandrade@optonline.net) about judging in the Fairfield competition at Sacred Heart University.  

These projects can be entered into a series of competitions, from the local to the national level, where professional historians and educators

Student participants expend much time and effort doing the following:

After selecting a historical topic that relates to an annual theme, students conduct extensive research using libraries, archives, museums, and oral history interviews. 

Students analyze and interpret their findings, draw conclusions about their topic's significance in history, and create final projects that demonstrate their work.ucators evaluate them.

Connecticut History Day is one of 57 affiliate programs of the highly regarded National History Day program.

In 2015, over 5,200 middle and high school students at 98 schools in 56 Connecticut towns participated in CHD.  CHD provides critical support for Social Studies education in Connecticut. It has grown exponentially in years to follow, but I don't have those numbers yet.  Participating students gain confidence and develop skills that make them college and career ready.

Your support for Connecticut History Day will fund:

- Free outreach workshops for students

- Teacher training

- Six Regional Contests

- The CHD State Contest

- Scholarships for students and teachers to attend the NHD Contest at the Univ. of Maryland

STAY UPDATED! Join the Connecticut History Day Email List: Sign up here.

Please help us save Connecticut History Day!  Due to the recent budget cuts that eliminated state funding for Connecticut Humanities, CHD lost the lion's share of its support--$50,000--for the 2016-2017 year.  Please click the button below to help us save this vital academic program.

http://www.ctdemocracycenter.org/home/donate

Teaching students about spinning in Early America.

Boothe Park, pictured below, has a hands-on Early American farm activities program in which we take school groups in the Spring and Fall. The 2nd and 5th grade classes are divided up, maximum of 8 in each group, and they revolve around for various activites relating to life on the homestead when it was inhabited by the Boothe family. They cook, do some simple woodworking, tour the farm and feed the animals, visit the blacksmith and use the tools, tour the house, turn raw wool into yarn, weave on an authentic loom, and more.  Each group does 6 activities in the course of a morning. In all my years of teaching, I never saw a more wonderful and engaging field trip experience. IT BRINGS BACK THE JOYFUL PART OF TEACHING! Throughout the summer, we are offering demos of how volunteers guide the students through the activities at the park. You are invited to come, meet some of the current warm and wonderful members of our volunteer community and see how it's done. You might decide you want to lend a hand.  VOLUNTEERS GIVE AS MUCH OR AS LITTLE TIME AS THEY CHOOSE.  To read about Betty Mulholland's experience as a volunteer at Boothe, just click here: Betty Mulholland.  You can contact her at JLM37@aol.com for more info. 

Directions To Boothe Park Homestead and Museum

5774 Main St. Putney

Stratford, CT 06614

FROM RT. 15N (MERRITT PARKWAY)
Take exit 53; at end of ramp take a right; bear right (almost immediately) at next intersection onto Main St. Putney; follow º mile and Boothe Park will be on your left.

FROM RT. 15S (MERRITT PARKWAY)
Take exit 53; at end of ramp take a left; bear right at next intersection onto Main St. Putney; follow º mile and Boothe Park will be on your left.

FROM I-95N
Take exit 33 and follow signs to RT 110; stay on RT 110 (East Main St.) one mile to traffic light at intersection of East Main St. and Main St.; take right onto Main St. (still RT 110); take 3rd left by bearing onto Main St. Putney (pond on left); follow for approx. ½ mile and Boothe Park will be on your right.

FROM I-95S
Take exit 38 to Merritt Parkway RT 15S and follow directions above from RT 15S.

See info at left. Training dates for Mercy Center tutors coming up in August and September.

REF member Gail Marton writes: 

I've been tutoring there since I retired in 2011.  I usually have ESL ladies for Early Literacy.  I've also been doing my first Citizenship Course since May, so I'm fully engaged. Dr. Kuroghlian (from Staples) and Elizabeth Power (see their stories at Mercy Center) have been tutoring there for years. Donna Orazio, former McKinley PTA President, has been there as well.   

“Educate a Woman… Educate a Family”

Since 1987, Mercy Learning Center has provided basic literacy and life skills training to low income women inthe Greater Bridgeport area. MLC is open Monday –Friday from 8:00 am-5:00 pm.  The Center is seeking  volunteers to teach English Language Learners as well as reading and math in its one-on-one or small group tutoring program. The commitment is twice per week for  two hours. No experience necessary. Training and materials provided.

   Please contact Lynn Gabriel or Sandra Santy

to register for a training session. 

   203-334-6699

lynn.gabriel@mercylearningcenter.org

sandra.santy@mercylearningcenter.org

   Mercy Learning Center 637 Park Avenue  Bridgeport, CT 06604