Capeless Elementary Celebrates Year's End With Field Day
Volunteers from the Berkshire County sheriff's office helped run the games.
In the waning days left to the school year, staff at Capeless put on their annual field day, setting up an array of games and activities for the children to play.
From tug o' war to variations of tag, to duck duck goose, the students rotated from station to station having fun.
"Field day is really about celebrating the end of the year, the close of working so hard all year and having a fun time with minimal competition. It is more for fun," second-grade teacher Carrie Healy said.
The children certainly have a good time, with the grades mixing in and out throughout the day. But the event isn't always easy to put on for the small school. It requires dozens of volunteers to supervise and run all of the games at the same time. At this time of the year, there are numerous events for parents to be involved in, there are graduations, there have been field trips.
Now, "they are maxed out on time away from work," she said, and can't take the time off to volunteer at the mid-week event.
"In the past, we've had troubles with working parents in trying to get them to field the event. It takes a lot of volunteers," Healy said.
But, "this year, we reached out to our local law enforcement — sheriff, Police, and Fire departments — to see if they would be interested in having a good time with us."
The call for backup worked. Joining the parents who could get there to volunteer were about a dozen from the Berkshire County sheriff's office and the Pittsfield Fire Department. The school had reached out to the community for extra volunteer support and the request was spread throughout the public safety agencies.
Officer Kelly Hakulin from the sheriff's department was one of those who jumped on the opportunity. She saw the request and remembered her field days from some 20 years ago. On Wednesday, she was one of three from the department leading the game of tug o' war.
Beyond Hakulin's own fun of spending time with the children and playing games, the volunteerism reflects well on the Sheriff's Office, which often doesn't have the positive interaction with members of the community as Wednesday's event.
"We want the kids to have a good perspective from a really young age. A lot of people look at law enforcement and they are wary of anybody with a badge. This, coming here and interacting with kids, gives them a good outlook. They're able to see us in a positive manner,"
Rob Leary from the Fire Department echoed similar sentiments. While Fire Departments aren't battling quite the negative perception those in law enforcement have to deal with, the firefighters also don't get to interact with the community on the good days as much as the bad.
"It's always fun to interact with the kids and see them in a better environment — sometimes we, unfortunately, get to meet them at the worst times. To come up here and see them at the school, even though we don't have the fire truck with us, at least they know the Fire Department is out here and we're helping," Leary said.
As the children finished circling from station to station, they gathered for a final treat — a chance to send Principal Candy Jezewski plunging into ice cold water. Two students from each class, those who showed high levels of sportsmanship, got the honor of attempting the sink Jezewski in the dunk tank — and it didn't take long before she took her first plunge of the day.
Tags: capeless school, school event,
