St. Madeleine Sophie School gets 'patrons'

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Principal Kelly Sloan of St. Madeleine Sophie School in Schenectady reported that, after reading a story in The Evangelist in November 2014 about the school's growth and efforts to provide enrichment opportunities for students (see www.evangelist.org), a family with no connection to the school contacted SMS, offering to become "patrons" of the school.

The Evangelist's story detailed SMS' partnership with a group of students studying management Siena College in Loudonville who used the elementary school as a case study for a research methods class. The Siena students recommended improvements in communication for SMS, which promptly updated its website, started a Twitter account and more -- and saw enrollment increase by about 20 students.

At the time, Mrs. Sloan said parents at the school wished for more enrichment opportunities for their children. Her wish came true when the "patron" family -- who wish to remain anonymous -- contacted a children's book author and its local illustrator, as well as the heroine of their true-story book, and arranged a school assembly where students in kindergarten through fifth grade could meet the trio.

The book is called "One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia;" the author is Miranda Paul and the illustrator is Elizabeth Zunon. They spoke to the children and gave a PowerPoint presentation on the dangers of plastic bags in the Gambia, a small country in Western Africa, and the movement started by one woman who wanted to clean up her village.

"Our students learned that the discarded plastic bags in the village were killing the animals [who] ate them and choked, being buried with the crops and choking out the roots, and hurting the people with pollution when the villagers tried to burn the toxic plastic," Mrs. Sloan reported. "Isatou found a way to recycle the bags into beautiful crocheted purses that helped to transform the lives of the women she engaged to help her and her entire village."

Ms. Zunon also described to the students how she produced the book's colorful illustrations, and author Miranda Paul recalled her visits to the Gambia and her need to share Ms. Ceesay's story.

Mrs. Sloan called the women "amazing and inspiring" and the event "a tremendous learning opportunity." Many of the children bought copies of the book; the SMS students also looked at www.oneplasticbag.com to learn about their visitors, and the school decided to hold a $1 dress-down day during Lent to raise money for books for children in Africa through a program called One Million Books for Gambia.

"We encouraged our students to sacrifice or earn the money to make more of an impact on them," Mrs. Sloan noted.

"We are so appreciative to our new patrons for the invaluable lessons we learned from such incredible women; and to Isatou, Miranda and Elizabeth for opening our eyes to not only a problem, but also the solution they found," the principal added. "It truly was a great day to learn something new at SMS!"[[In-content Ad]]