2017 Legacy Project

                        By Bobbie Margo

Since 2015, NEA has replaced “OUTREACH TO TEACH” – (remember “OUTREACH” was a school make-over in a day) with “THE LEGACY PROJECT.”  “LEGACY” stands for “Leaders Empowering Grassroots Advocacy for Communities and Youth.”  The project aims to organize, to educate, and to lead change for the communities of parents and of students that our educators serve. 

We started the day at 6:00 am (yawn!) and connected with the NEA student organization.  We had breakfast (lots of coffee), pulled on our “Legacy t-shirts”

(yellow with navy letters) and were bused to our destination.  Our destination was Everett High School in Everett, MA just north of Boston.  The school has approximately 2,100 students (9-12) with 86% of the student population being of diverse backgrounds.

However the Legacy Project worked with elementary school children/their families from the Everett community.  Participants rotated among a dozen or so high-energy “impact” stations attempting to inform and to energize subjects such as literacy, social justice, water pollution, bullying, and more.  At one station, local health professionals even checked children’s eyes and teeth.  At another station, children were shown the effects of bullying-like a bruised apple-one may not see the effects on the surface.
 

Five ED MN retirees participated in this year’s Project.  Julie Jagusch and Sharon Kjellberg worked at the “geography” station, Lynette Wayne worked at the “STEM” station, Larry Koenck worked at the “fitness/nutrition” station, and I worked at the “literacy/library” station.
 

I