Benches for Buck’s Ledge community

Bench 1 – Travis Young (left) and Cruz Honesto created this bench entitled Four Seasons Tree.

AREA — Every year, Telstar Middle School Art students find creative ways to take positive actions to help their community. TMS Art teacher Melissa Prescott has a vision that she shares with her students at the start of the year: Art is for all. Art is for Community. Art can promote healing, hope, and inclusion. Students in Prescott’s Community Arts classes decide together how they want to direct the annual ArtReach service-learning project. After students decide what they want to focus on, they research their chosen topics, meet and talk to people in their community who are doing work related to their topics, and then they engage in various kinds of creative actions in collaboration with other community members and organizations.

Bench 2 – From left to right, Lexi Indermuhele, Isla DeCato, Kayde Ridlon, Kim Muck, and Bryce Morgan created this bench entitled Nature’s View. Absent from photo Sophie Mason.

This year, students in the 6th and 7th grade Community Art classes wanted to protect, preserve, and improve their outdoor environment with their art, and the 8th graders chose to focus on helping to create environments that support mental health and civil rights. In looking for potential local partners, Prescott learned about the efforts to conserve Buck’s Ledge and welcome everyone to the trails. She began talking with the folks involved in the Woodstock Conservation Commission to see how students could get involved, and they identified several ways that students could choose to help with the project – including creating benches, conducting research, fundraising, volunteering on the trails, and designing an art installation to welcome all people to the forest.

Bench 3 – Davon Degruttola created this bench entitled The Whooping Willow Tree.

Students researched the history, environmental issues, and accessibility of Buck’s Ledge and the surrounding areas, including some past and present connections to Wabanaki history and people. Students also learned about the grassroots effort led by the Woodstock Conservation Commission, and partners Mahoosuc Land Trust, Northern Forest Society, and Forest Society of Maine, who are collaborating to purchase the iconic land and preserve it for everyone as a Community Forest. These middle school students are a strong piece of that puzzle.

Bench 4 – From left to right, Blakley Strength, Halea Money, Amy Francis, and Michaela Mowery (and Bo Gidding, absent from photo) created this bench entitled Welcome All.

The students, with assistance from retired art teacher Leslie Rosenberg, created designs for benches answering the questions: “How does nature inspire you?” and “How can we welcome ALL people to the Buck’s Ledge Community Forest?”. Each bench is reflective of their inspiration that came collectively and will provide a comfortable resting spot along the trails. Three of the benches students created will be a part of a future Trail for All, and one will be a part of an art installation for the
entrance to the trails.

Cruz Honesto and Travis Young created a bench titled Four Seasons Tree. Kim Muck, Kayde Ridlon, Isla DeCato, Sophie Mason, Lexi Indemuhele, and Bryce Morgan created a bench entitled Nature’s View. Davon Degruttola designed a bench called The Whooping Willow Tree.

Michaela Mowery, Amy Francis, and Bo Giddings created the Welcome All bench as a part of the planned art installation for the entrance to the trails. The art installation design was a collaboration between Michaela Mowery, Amy Francis, Blakley Strength, and Halea Monelt, and it will be created by TMS Community Art students this fall in collaboration with artist Nikki Millonzi. The message of “Welcome All” on the bench is both an invitation and a request. The students who designed this bench shared that the statement means to them: “We welcome all people here, and we ask that you do the same.”

To create the four benches, TMS Community Art students were supported by Telstar High School Industrial Arts teacher Tim O’Connor and three of his students: Cameron Palmer, Caleb Howe, and Colby Hastings. They helped with the bench design, and also with measuring, cutting, and helping to assemble the pieces of the benches.

In addition to creating benches, Community Art students conducted and recorded four interviews to learn about the history of Buck’s Ledge. Will Chapman of the Bethel Historical Society archived their interviews with Jim Chandler, environmental education teacher; Ed and Leslie Rosenberg, history of the Buck’s Ledge project; Bunker House, a 92-year-old member of the Penobscot Nation who was born in a tent at the foot of Buck’s Ledge; and Alice McKilliop, a 96-year-old resident of Woodstock.

Also, Community Art students Cadie Campbell, Alyssa Norton, and Evalyn Cummings organized some creative fundraisers for Buck’s Ledge involving a hot dog sled. They, along with 20 other TMS Community Art students, attended a field trip to Buck’s Ledge in May and participated in a work day – clearing brush, painting the trails, and building stone steps to make the ascent to Buck’s Ledge easier. The day culminated with giant bubble-making at the top, looking out over North Pond and the White Mountains.

Special thanks go to Bethel Rotary and the family of Ruth Blakney in her honor for the cost of the materials for the benches. Also thanks to Jim Chandler for his help with ideas and inspiration for the bench design, and to Vern Maxfield and Heather Jordan for their help with the oral history interviews. The TMS Community Art classes would also like to thank all the people involved with the Woodstock Conservation Commission for welcoming and including students in this project.

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