DIXFIELD – Two weeks ago, students at Dixfield Elementary School traveled from yard to yard raking and bagging leaves, picking up trash and doing other good deeds.

At Friday’s Make A Difference Day assembly, the youths took the stage, detailing what they did and how proud it made them feel while helping Dixfield’s elderly and other community members.

“It was hard work, but it was fun, too,” said one boy from Wanda Howard’s class.

Kathy Richard, SAD 21’s K-4 principal, helped the smaller children overcome stage fright, helping them to remember what it was they wanted to tell classmates and school officials.

Prior to the children’s presentations – complete with posters adorned with photographs of the work – Richard said, “You brought tears to the older people by just showing up and doing what you did. I’m so proud of you and your upbeat attitudes. You did make a difference.”

Other community projects completed by students included collecting 969 items of food during the month of October and filling three-quarters of a bottled water jug with pennies to buy a large quilted blanket for Bullrock, the town’s moose sculpture and mascot.

After some students presented the Rev. Ken Hinkley and Marion Brown with some food items, fourth-graders lugged the boxed goods to Hinkley’s van for delivery to the Dixfield Common Church’s food pantry.

“It’s marvelous what you kids have done,” Brown said.

Hinkley said the student-gathered goods would help feed the 20 to 25 families who rely on the pantry each month.

The blue-and-white blanket, supplied by Big Dee’s Tack and Vet Supplies of Streetsboro, Ohio, cost $80, Richard said. The company donated the cost of lettering the blanket with the words, “Dixfield, A Warm Community That Makes a Difference.”

Students are slated to put the blanket and a pair of blue ear muffs on the giant chainsaw-carved and hand-painted moose at 12:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 3, at the town common beside Route 2.

Last year, Dixfield Elementary School students collected pennies and donated them to the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center in Livermore.

“We have so much given to us from the community, that we wanted to give back,” Richard added.

The school also presented Tim Hanson of Dixfield with a plaque honoring his community service work and for helping to rejuvenate SAD 21 athletic fields at Harlow Park.

“We want to congratulate Tim for making a difference in this community and for his endless hours of work and effort to make Harlow Park a place we can be proud of,” Richard added.

Superintendent Thomas Ward also acknowledged Hanson’s work, saying that he “made a major difference in what he did for Harlow Park.”

The schoolchildren closed out the assembly with a rousing song before boarding buses and heading home.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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