Telstar freshmen serve dinner with ‘grace and joy’

GREENWOOD — School administrators, attendees and students alike are calling Thursday evening’s fundraising dinner for the Freshman Academy in School Administrative District 44 a success.

Members of the academy at Telstar Regional High School in Bethel worked for several days to prepare a meal made with Maine-grown food and served about 200 people.

The dinner raised over $1,300, which is about $1,000 more than raised last year.

All proceeds will go toward the class trip to Washington, D.C., in the spring.

The academy is an innovative model aimed at building engagement and academic success for freshmen, Ruth Kermish-Allen and Margaret Foster of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance said. The entire freshman class goes to the 4-H Camp & Learning Center in Woodstock part of every day for project-based learning experiences. The goals of the academy are to encourage attendance, student engagement and academic achievement.

Norman Greenberg, instructor at the Woodstock learning center, said the trip supplements the students’ lessons and gives them a chance to “engage in a much more powerful way.”

“Instead of reading about famous things, places, events and people in books, online and in movies or videos, students can see, touch, smell, taste, hear and experience these things firsthand,” he said.

“I would like to see this kind of program — real world experiences — expanded for our students,” School Administrative District 44 board member Marcel Polak said.

Polak said if the freshmen had been working in a restaurant, they would have gotten great tips, because the meal was served with “such grace and joy.”

The meal began with corn chowder and vegetable bean soup, a salad with roasted squash, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, goat cheese and maple cranberry vinaigrette. The entrees were shepherd’s pie, New England baked beans, zucchini Parmesan roasted potatoes, dill-glazed carrots, broccoli with sauteed garlic and sausage with sauerkraut.

Desserts were apple crisp and pumpkin pie. Diners also enjoyed mint tea and hot apple cider.

“It was an inspiring meal served by great kids and teachers, with ingredients from close to home,” Martha Siegel of Albany Township said.

“The feedback we received from the guests was positive and a lot of the students went out of their comfort zone,” Greenberg said. The dinner “really gave the students an opportunity to shine in unexpected ways.”

emarquis@sunmediagroup.net