EASTHAMPTON — A sock, a piece of plastic and some fake eyeballs — a simple yet effective formula to create a sock puppet.
That formula was executed last Wednesday by nearly 30 Mountain View School students, who will soon use the puppets as part of their very own performance at the end of the eight-week program.
“Most sock puppets are flat but this one has a rounded foam skull, a solid plastic mouth plate and then, of course, the eyes,” said instructor Eric Weiss, owner of Homeslice Puppetry in South Hadley.
Wednesday was the third class — one class a week over eight weeks — available to third through eighth graders at Mountain View. The students have already made shadow puppets and will now work to create what he called mechanism puppets that use strings to animate them. Over the next five weeks, the puppets will be used to stage a performance of their own creation.
“Next time when you come, you need to bring ideas for our show,” Weiss said at the end of class.
The program was made possible through the Easthampton Learning Foundation (ELF), as one of more than 15 classes, field trips and educational opportunities that received funding this year.
The foundation was established by a group of parents more than 20 years ago using an endowment that continues to grow and fund opportunities at Easthampton Public Schools (EPS) just like the puppet class. Grants this year will help fund a field trip to the Mystic Aquarium, the Diverse Leaders Club, Easthampton High School’s We the People team and many more.
“I would say most of the programs and projects that we fund at the school are not what would be funded through a traditional school budget,” said ELF board member Jenny Papageorge.
The endowment has grown to more than $1 million, and each year approximately $30,000 is taken out and divided into grants ranging from $1,000 to more than $5,000. Papageorge said teachers and school employees create grant applications that the foundation selects, seeking to provide a way for teachers to bring their ideas to life for students.
“We had thought about only doing 10, but then we had 28 kids sign up,” said EPS Family Engagement Coordinator Jean Libby, who worked with Weiss to create the puppet class grant application. “I just love puppets and thought this would be fun.”
Papageorge said the foundation also relies on donors and community partnerships to help make the programming come to life. She said while the endowment has built up over time, they can only take out a limited amount each year.
“When individuals or businesses contribute to ELF, adding an additional $1,000 really is impactful because that means we can fund another program within a classroom,” Papageorge said. “You know it might be making the decision about having the puppetry program or not.”
Papageorge said educational foundations like ELF are common throughout the country and are vital to support programs. She said they will become increasingly important, as cities and towns continue to face rising costs.
“A lot of the programs that we’re able to fund change the experiences that students have within the district,” Papageorge said. “Teachers do the best and schools do the best with the limited resources that they have but these funds really transform a lot of the (student) experiences.”
President of the ELF board Gen Brough said before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she and Papageorge joined the board as many of the members retired.
Brough said it was important to keep the foundation alive through the pandemic when grant applications started to dwindle. However, it also opened the door for the foundation to become more collaborative with teachers, helping bridge the gap between the schools and the community.
“We were able to think outside of the box during COVID. It opened the eyes to the school department and to the teachers to create proposals that were outside of the box and not just a standard learning process,” Brough said.
One of the foundation’s “greatest success stories” during that time, Brough says, was the foundation’s collaboration with the Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary, bringing outdoor lessons for students and training for teachers.
The board plans to have an ice cream social fundraiser in May and its biggest fundraiser, a pickleball tournament, this fall.
“I think education is going to continue to evolve over the next five to 10 years and our goal is to be able to evolve with it,” Brough said. “So whatever is available to teachers to teach is what we want to help support.”
To learn more, visit the Easthampton Learning Foundation’s website.