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Date: 8/8/2023
HUNTINGTON — The Gateway Regional School District’s Explorer Summer STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) Camp wrapped up its final week with an unveiling of murals in the baseball dugout on Aug. 7, and a campwide whale-watching trip to Gloucester on Aug 8.
The art mural project, called “Wild About Art,” was one of six units of the STEAM camp which over 90 fifth to ninth grade campers took turns participating in.
The mural project was overseen by Gateway Middle School veteran art teacher Christine O’Malley along with guest muralist and Huntington resident Lulu Maiorescu, who is a painting student at the Pratt Institute in New York. Maiorescu had spent three years working with urban mural projects in a New York City-based special program designed for teens.
Maiorescu said the project started the first week of the five-week camp with representatives from the Wild and Scenic River Committee teaching the students about the Westfield River and the animals, birds and insects which live in and around it. The mural project also marks the 30th anniversary of the Westfield River receiving Wild and Scenic designation from Congress.
At the school during the last week, rising fifth and sixth graders in the fish group talked about the fish they painted. Addie Lucas said she painted a rainbow trout.
“Rainbows are very pretty. I love the colors. I have a picture of a rainbow on my phone,” Lucas said.
Gabe Santos said he painted the little blue fish, although he couldn’t recall what type of fish it was. His classmate Hannah Mattoon painted a turtle.
“I love turtles — they’re my spirit animal,” she said.
Also depicted in the mural were tadpoles, eels, crayfish, insects and a piranha. Maiorescu said some of the drawings were make-believe.
For the mammals mural, Jenavive Rousseau painted a fox sitting next to a blue mushroom, and Norah Cormier painted a bat.
Maiorescu said the students had been working on the murals since July 10. She said the first week, they learned about the animals, and everyone painted one. She then cut out the pictures, and projected them onto a piece of paper the size of the large boards they would ultimately go on.
The teachers and students then collaborated on the layout of the murals. Maiorescu then took a picture of the layout for each of the five murals, and outlined the animals on the board.
“They learned what murals are — a lot of us didn’t know,” Maiorescu said. She herself has worked on two giant murals in Brooklyn, where she lives.
The murals, which will be permanently affixed to the back of the baseball dugouts, were unveiled on Aug. 9. Maiorescu said they used exterior paint for the murals, which she mixed from primary colors. Materials for the project were donated by Sherwin Williams, Clark Paint, Fleury Lumber and Home Depot. They will be sprayed with a protective coating to withstand the elements.
“Our Explorer’s Summer Camp units centered around environmental awareness. The mural project was a key piece in the ‘art’ part of STEAM. It blended perfectly with our pond study unit as well as our ‘Plants, Pollinators’ and ‘Farm to Table’ units,” said Gateway’s coordinator of student programs and communication, Martha Clark. “The murals will still be there when these kids embark on their lives beyond school, and we know that the experience of learning about and creating images of animals will give them pride in the remarkable river that defines our landscape.”
Other units in the summer camp included a study of the pond behind the school, led by paraprofessional Kim Blanchette. Blanchette said they tested the water, going in and out of the pond using waders, and found that the water in the pond is clean. The students are also creating public service announcements for each of the Gateway communities to give information on blue-green algae, why it’s harmful and how it can make animals and people sick.
In another unit, students created a pollinators garden next to the vegetable garden, created last year during summer camp with a grant from Home Depot. The students learned about pollinators and got perennials from A Wing and a Prayer in Cummington and Rocking Horse Farm in Huntington. They researched how tall each would grow and how far apart to help them, and each group planted a section. Campers were scheduled next to help make concrete pavers for the walkway.
Clark said Gateway graduate Sam Mazzaferro, owner of West Branch Landscaping, volunteered his time and materials such as mulch, concrete for pavers, and liners for the walkways. Gateway Farm & Pet in Huntington was also a sponsor. Clark said the school also received a $2,000 grant from Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom to create the perennial garden.
Another unit used science kits from the Boston Science Museum, under the direction of seventh grade teacher Christopher Camarco, to design prosthetic fins for fish, legs for elephants, a beak for an eagle and a tail for Winter the Dolphin, in cooperation with West Springfield Orthotics.
A “Recycle, Reuse” unit explained all about recycling, and students made cars out of discarded objects, which they used in timed races. For the team building unit, students did daily team-building exercises, and traveled to Ramblewild Adventure Park in Lanesborough, where they completed the aerial course.
Part of the camp was a field trip every week, which included Ramblewild in the Berkshires, a trip to the Connecticut Science Museum, the Shelburne Bridge of Flowers and the Springfield Museums. The culminating whale watching field trip to Gloucester on Aug. 9 was underwritten by a $6,100 grant from Westfield Bank.
Clark said the Gateway Explorer’s STEAM Summer Camp was paid for by a $210,000 21st Century Learning grant, which is renewable for up to five years, at no cost to families of campers.