Lincoln-Bassett Students Lend A Helping Hand

Lincoln-Bassett School fourth-grader Sunjai Yancey Williams carefully poured water into a pot of broccoli sprouts. Her eyes were focused. The second she finished with the pot, they eased in relief. 

She and her classmates were inside the greenhouse at the Ivy Street Community Garden for their Newhallville school’s ​“Community Day” — and helping the garden grow was part of the programming created by Assistant Principal Eva Schultz.

“We learned how to keep plants safe and learned about different types of plants,” Jakhi Cox, a fifth grader, said about Monday’s outing. ​“I thought this garden was their garden and they didn’t want nobody.”

Then, after a pause, Cox said: ​“I felt good for helping the environment.”

Schultz’s aim with Community Day was to get the Bassett Street elementary school students to ​“help the community outside of the building.” She succeeded. According to Adam Rawlings, who works at the community garden through the Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven (NHS), gardens like the Ivy Street Community Garden are created on street corners to ​“revitalize” a neighborhood. The students at Lincoln-Bassett were a part of this process.

“By beautifying a space like this, it can have a greater impact on the perception of the neighborhood as a whole,” Rawlings said.

In the greenhouse, students learned about how worms create soil. Outside the greenhouse, children ran about in the grass with Rawlings. They tried to find plants in the garden that Rawlings had helped them to identify earlier. He was surprised by how fearless they were.

“They weren’t scared or grossed out too much by the worms!” Rawlings said.

Back inside the school, Lincoln-Bassett students made dog treats for the New Haven Animal Shelter. 

The dog treats were made with oatmeal, apple sauce, and eggs with a ​“special ingredient,” as described by first grader Anastasia Rivera. Come to find out, the eggs came not from the grocery store, but from teacher Brittany Kammerer’s chickens. (“I know what the special ingredient is,” said first grader Amayah Williams. ​“Love.”)

They also helped out school custodian Trina Bush and cleaned the lunchroom tables.

Like Rawlings, Bush was surprised by their enthusiasm. Given how young the students were, Bush did not expect them to be so eager to help out. She noted that the students would try to clean the tables until they were sparkling clean. A student went above and beyond and tried to clean the floor.

“We have really good children who are really mindful of how to leave the cafeteria,” Bush said. ​“I’m very proud of them.”

The students had different reasons for wanting to participate in Community Day. Helping out, to some students like fourth grader Joel Campbell, seemed instinctual — ​“We help people, just like people help us.”

And other students, like fourth grader Jade Goodson, had future students in mind. ​“It’s going to be another year so new people are going to come in there and we don’t want the tables to be dirty. We wanted them to be welcomed.”

When asked if they wanted to participate in Community Day again, sixth grader Emily Contreras and fifth graders Azul Ramos and Jakhi Cox all agreed: ​“Yes!”