Wednesday, June 4, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sister Patricia Healey, I.H.M. (Principal) at 215-886-4782
Email:
A TALE OF TWO BENCHES
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
These often-quoted opening words from a classic Charles Dickens novel also seem to apply to a couple of additions to the exterior of Good Shepherd Catholic Regional School on North Hills Avenue in Ardsley.
As visitors to the school approach the building’s front doors – in the center of a U-shaped design – to their left, they may notice a bench sitting outside under the school library windows. As they get closer to the entrance, their eyes are drawn to a new outdoor garden, which includes a second bench, under another set of windows, sitting among flowers and other ornamental pieces.
The simpler wooden seat to the left is the school’s new “Friendship Bench,” which sprang from the mind of a fourth-grade student who earlier this school year was working on a Social Studies project modeled after William Penn’s “Great Law,” which was a series of statutes enacted in 1682 by Pennsylvania’s first legislature that centered around the premise that “all people are born equal.” Hope Wackerman’s essay detailed her idea of a “friendship bench” where students could talk and listen to each other, and possibly “help others who are lonely” or allow students a space to “talk out problems with friends … without always telling an adult.”
Hope’s “Great Law” is “We are all friends, let’s talk it out,” and she coaxed her father, Austin, into actually building the bench with her, and they also recently weather-proofed it so they could place it outdoors when the weather turned nice.
The other new outside bench at GSC came about during a sadder time at the school when preschool teacher Kathleen “Kass” Hagarty passed away suddenly on April 9, after she suffered a brain aneurysm the previous morning as she was preparing to leave her house in Maple Glen to go to school.
So that bench, which bears a plaque from the Class of 2014, sits in a memory garden for the beloved educator, wife, mother and grandmother that was dedicated during a prayer service on May 14. The ceremony included a launch of 36 colorful balloons into the sky with messages written to Mrs. Hagarty by her four-year-old students who described their teacher as “nice and funny and smart.”
Hagarty had been a preschool teacher at Good Shepherd for all of the school’s four years, and the long-time former Glenside resident previously had taught preschool and kindergarten in the same building when it was known as Queen of Peace School. In total, the 67-year-old Hagarty devoted 34 years to Catholic education in Ardsley, and her family said her daily challenge was to have control of her classroom without raising her voice. She was planning to retire at the end of this school year.
So while every school year at every school can be marked by “the best of times” and “the worst of times,” the two new benches outside GSC stand as a daily reminder to the school community and visitors that human kindness, compassion and hope are needed at all times.
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There are four accompanying photos :
GSC1-Hagarty Garden Dedication.jpg
Mrs. Hagarty’s four-year-old preschool students are assisted by preschool teacher Kim Franzone during the dedication of a “Memory Garden” in Hagarty’s honor at GSC on May 14. Hagarty’s husband, Tim, and other family members attended the ceremony and are pictured in the background, to the right of this photo.
GSC2-Garden w-Bench Side View.jpg
A view of the newly-dedicated “Memory Garden” in honor of Mrs. Kass Hagarty in front of Good Shepherd Catholic Regional School in Ardsley.
GSC3-Bench Plaque.jpg
GSC4-Friendship Bench.jpg
GSC fourth grade students (l to r) Abigail Murphy, Lydia Couchara, Hope Wackerman, Jason Boyd and Ethan Fox share a happy moment together on the school’s new “Friendship Bench” built by Hope and her father, Austin, as part of a Social Studies project.
To contact the writer of this release, call Jim Templeton at 215-659-8404,
or email Jim at .