Operation Pumpkin: Souhegan Ethics Forum reaches out to Mont Vernon Village School kids

Published: Thursday, October 29, 2009

Photo by SARAH DOUGHERTY Members of the Ethics Forum at Souhegan High School decorated more than 270 pumpkins for Mont Vernon Village School students.

to donate

Donations to help the Ethics Forum fund future community outreach events would be greatly appreciated by the group. Make check payable to: Souhegan High School, memo: Ethics Forum, and mail it to Ethics Forum, Souhegan High School, 412 Boston Post Road, Amherst NH 03031.

From the outside looking in, Room A212 at Souhegan High School may have appeared a bit messy and chaotic on Oct. 23.

Students, however, had the decorating of more than 270 pumpkins under control, and the motivation to complete a task that would serve the community.

The pumpkins, donated by Lull Farm and Amherst Garden Center, were painted, organized and packaged by the Ethics Forum, a student group dedicated to making a local, national or global change. On Monday, the Ethics Forum delivered the decorated pumpkins to each student at Mont Vernon Village School and spent the day interacting with the students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

“I had a lot of fun,” senior D.J. Petropulos said. “I think it’s really important for the kids to have a role model that sets a good example, someone they can look up to and a person who does good things for the community.”

The high school students’ visit to Mont Vernon kicked off with an assembly at which SHS students who had attended MVVS spoke about their hobbies and goals before the group split up into classrooms to deliver the pumpkins.

“The place felt very small,” said senior Heidi Springmann, who had attended MVVS. “Not just in a literal sense, either. I felt big. Like I was going to really make an impact on this school.”

The happiness of the MVVS students was proof of the impact that the Ethics Forum had made on the elementary school, but the high school students soon learned of the impact the elementary school students could make on them.

“They loved spending time with us and having us in their classes,” senior Colleen Graham said. “But I think we enjoyed it even more than they did. . . . It is definitely an experience I will carry with me forever.”

After the success of Operation Pumpkin, the Ethics Forum decided to dedicate the rest of the school year to hosting more community outreach events. The group branches off from Ethics Seminar, a popular senior course that teaches the importance of morality and self-development through a philosophical-based curriculum.

The theories and concepts that students learn in class can be seen in the action they take through the Ethics Forum.

“Ethics Forum is kind of like the ‘so what?’ in the equation,” Springmann said. “The forum makes you take what you learn in the classroom and apply it in real life.”

Ethics Seminar teachers Chris Brooks and Amy Pham expect the students to take what they learn during their last year of high school and implement it once they leave.

“I see amazing stuff produced inside and outside the classroom,” Brooks said. “I want students who leave this institution to be good people, to make the right decisions and to care for people. That’s the most important thing.”

Kristin Leffler is a senior at Souhegan High School in Amherst.