A Good End and An Excellent Start

The Open Doors program at City School has done it again. We just finished our first session of the new school year, and as always, we finished up our programs in grand style. And now were into our winter session.

Last session the Dance program, with the help of Rachel Billideau, showed off their dance skills at halftime of the 7 th and 8 th grade basketball game while the Sports Sampler class rolled a strike by going to the bowling alley and knocking over some pins with their wonderful instructors Rachel Quinn and Lesley Cheney-Underwood. The Fun with Drama class went to the Holiday House Nursing Facility with instructor BJ Smith to razz and dazzle the folks there with their wonderful performances and the Eco Architects had a little showing of their work to some of the staff and parents on what, where, when, how, and who of their buildings and sites.

The Beyond the Wardrobe class, with the help of Claudia Mahoney, Kathi Brown, Tony Galle, and Tom Maguire, completely redid the back upstairs hall in the school in a wonderful Narnia theme, and made news broadcasts, and a puppet show with the Narnia puppets. The G.I.R.L. with Beads class ended on a tired note by having a sleepover at City School with Deb McCarthy, Lisa Sutton, and Lesley Cheney Underwood. At the event they practiced applying make-up to each other, watched movies, and ran around the gymnasium until the wee hours of the night. Luckily their instructors had them up bright and early, as the saying goes “the early bird catches the worm.”

The Tech Savvy Kids class – a combination City and Town school collaborative class- finished up with their pod casts, pictures, and much more, with the help of Lucie delaBruere. Healthy Cooking student, with Rachel Quinn, invited parents in at the end of the class to partake in a smorgasbord of delicious delicacies and the Sign Language 101 class with Terry Monnett, also enjoyed participating in both a cooking and sports days in order to apply some of their new skills in real life activities. As you can tell, it was a great session and everyone had a great time.

This next session promises to be one of our most exciting. Cooking is always popular so this session there are two cooking classes: Healthy and Creative Cooking class with Rachel Quinn and Crafty Cooking with Cindy Anderson where the students will make appetizers, desserts, and the main courses. Youth leaders Casey Lamothe, Brooke Spence, and Leah Anderson helped write a $1500 grant in collaboration with Open Doors Director, Cathy Ainsworth, in order to fund these classes.

Some of the old favorites are back such as Dance with Rachel Billideau and Chess Club with Margot Cluette. Open Doors is also offering Sports Sampler again, with Rachel Quinn and Lesley Cheney Underwood, where the students get to partake in a variety of sports and team building exercises. Renie Zanleoni, a gym teacher at City School, is teaching a Table Tennis class where the students will learn the history of ping pong as well as how to play it well. A new Herbal Class, with veteran instructor Debbie Landauer, was added where students will be making things such as lip balm, salve and teas. The Pirate-ology class with Claudia Mahoney and Tom Maguire will intriduce students to the ways of pirates and to maybe become a pirate themselves. We are also offering a little something new by having a High School student, Sean Chase, teach a Dungeon and Dragons Class,which was one of the most popular programs chosen by students this session. A new program called, Hola, A Cultural Extravaganza, with teacher Patricia Pizarro, offers students a look into the Spanish culture In class they will learn dance moves, cook some customary foods, and learn a little Espanola in the process.

Marlyn Abell, is offering a class called Chill Time, where she will be helping students to build relationships with friends and family as well as educate them on drug prevention. Several art classes are being offered including Melissa Haberman’s Float Design class, where students will design and make a float for the upcoming Maple Festival in April in St. Albans, and Kathi Brown’s Chair Painting program, where students will learn about an artist and then paint two chairs. One chair will be for students to take home and the other chair will be used in fundraiser for Open Doors. Tony Galle is offering a Comic Book Design program where students are learning how to draw characters in different styles and Lucie deLaBruere is offering another session of Tech Savvy Kids and Tech Savvy Girls where students will learn some fun and interesting skills on the computer. And last but not least is the Trash, Where Ya At program, with yours truly and Michelle Monroe, where students learn how to be more environmentally aware about trash’s impact on our planet.

Thank you to all the staff, parents, and volunteers who help to make Open Doors a success every session. Please feel free to contact Josh Lacan (752-5828), the City School Program Coordinator, if you have any questions about Open Doors programs.