Twice each year — for one day in the fall and a week every spring — the students at Gaynor McCown Expeditionary Learning School officially make like their school’s namesake and dedicate themselves to various forms of community service.

“This is a starting point, a stepping stone,” said teacher Elizabeth Kramer, the event coordinator. “For some students, it’s the first time they are doing something like this. They have fun doing it and see the difference it makes.”

On the morning of Oct. 16, the 2015 Day of Service, the school’s 460 students were involved in more than a dozen activities throughout the school and at other sites, from planting flowers to reading to younger children.

Rosemary Gaynor McCown, an assistant to the secretary of education under President Bill Clinton, dedicated her life to improving public education in the United States. She remained involved in community service until her life was cut short by cancer in 2005 at age 45.

The focus at the school named for her is on project-based undertakings.

Image

Jonathan Fickies

“That’s what drew me to the school,” said Eric Feliciano, a first-year living environment and earth science teacher. “It allows you to step out of the classroom and do more than just chalk and talk. The students have learned about their borough — the Green Belt, Fresh Kills, the environment.”

Feliciano was a few miles from the school at Willowbrook Park in that Green Belt, where students weeded and planted daffodils around the perimeter of the popular Carousel for All Children.

Teacher Conrad Sparnroth and paraprofessional Sal Balistreri were among those who took a group to PS 48 on the other end of Staten Island, where the Gaynor McCown students assisted 1st-graders during reading exercises.

“Over the summer I volunteered at a summer camp,” student Christina Ragucci said. “So I thought it would be fun being with the younger kids. Who knows? I might be a teacher one day.”

Image

Jonathan Fickies

Back at Gaynor McCown, students were involved with more than a dozen activities. Art teacher Mike Stanganelli guided students in painting a mural on the thirdfloor stairwell. Algebra teacher Kara Olah led students in making pet toys to donate to an animal shelter. English teachers Robert Friedman and Arthur Surochkin supervised a basketball fundraiser for the March of Dimes and Operation Homefront, which helps soldiers get back on their feet once they return home.

“The students see the impact their work has,” Kramer said. “They clean up an area, for instance, and realize it would be terrible if it became a mess again. They want to make sure it stays beautiful.”