Partnership provides students with important lessons, pizza

FARMINGTON – Students at the Academy Hill School in Wilton received a slice of fun Thursday afternoon, as Kids Can brought 20 would-be chefs to the Mt. Blue Campus to make pizza.

The program, a collaborative effort by AHS teachers, Barclays and Mt. Blue Campus instructors and seniors, is aimed at connecting elementary students with academic concept beyond the classroom. Kids Can, the brainchild of teachers Brenda LaVerdiere and Valerie Benton, began operating five years ago, after Barclays approached them and requested setting up some sort of education program. Students at AHS are referred to Kids Can by their teachers, and provided with a series of after-school excursions designed to highlight the importance of what they’re learning in school.

“The goal is to make connections between what they learn in the classroom — reading, writing, math — with what they see in the outside world,” teacher Leslie Kaiser said. One of the organizers of the Kids Can program, Kaiser said that the program also tries to dovetail with the school’s motto of being “respectful, responsible and kind.”

Barclays provides financial support for the program’s busing and material-related expenses, as well as mentors, employees who volunteer their time to attend Kids Can events.

“I think it’s great,” Barclays’ employee Matt Irish said, noting the program was in keeping with the company’s values of volunteerism and community service. “I think it gives kids the chance to look down the road and relate the importance of what they’re learning in school with what’s coming.”

Last year, Kids Can brought students to Sean Minear’s Culinary Arts program at Foster Technology Center. The outing was such a success that the connection between the technology center, now part of the Mt. Blue Campus, and Kids Can was further strengthened by the addition of visits to the Digital Media and Commercial Arts programs. An initial visit allows the AHS students to tour the kitchens, learn about cookbooks and refrigerators and recipes, while the second visit puts their cooking skills to the test. The students each get a passport, which is stamped after each venture.

Once they’d arrived, students quickly grouped up around one of three high school students, Richie Storer, Tala Ferguson and Jeremiah Wright, all veterans  of Minear’s Culinary Arts program, and began stretching out pizza dough.

“It was great fun,” Minear said of last year’s event, despite three weather-related cancellations and what he described as a “logistical challenge.” The AHS students would build specific pizzas, he said, but then develop their own, using ingredients found in the program’s refrigerator and freezer units. “They’re better than Disney for them,” Minear said of the freezer, which the AHS students toured during their last visit.

Minear said he was particularly proud of his students, who act as mentors and teachers alongside the Barclays volunteers and AHS educators. The Culinary Arts students need to manage several, excited elementary students and their own time, an organizational element Minear stresses in his class.

“For these younger kids,” Minear said, “these high school kids are heroes. It’s a great experience for my students.”