‘Sled Dogs’ Come To Wallingford For Schools' Celebration Event

WALLINGFORD, CT — Wallingford’s grades 3-5 elementary schools celebrated its Four Schools, One Book project with a culminating Family Night event this week that featured real sled dogs and mushers, along with a sled dog race between the schools’ principals in the halls of Sheehan High School.

Nearly 700 people attended Monday night’s event at Sheehan, which included numerous activities throughout the school to celebrate the book “Sled Dog School” by Terry Lynn Johnson. At the beginning of the month, the four schools – Pond Hill, Parker Farms, Mary G. Fritz and Rock Hill – revealed “Sled Dog School” as the choice for students and families to read for the project.

Some of the activities required pre-registration due to limited space, but Parker Farms Librarian Wendy Fredricksen said they made sure to have stations and presentations that could be joined at any time, so there was plenty to do for all.

“It was a bit intimidating planning for and expecting that number of people, but it was thrilling to see it all come to life,” Fredricksen said.

The activities included a sled dog demonstration from Connecticut musher Liz Chapman, who brought her Siberian Husky rescue dogs. Together they demonstrated the art of dog sledding outside by the Sheehan soccer field. Since there was no snow, Chapman used a sled that was outfitted with wheels.

Karen Land shared her experiences as an Iditarod musher with a presentation inside the cafeteria, while “Sled Dog School” author Terry Lynn Johnson held two Skype sessions for a discussion about the book, and her experiences as a musher.

The Family Night event was organized by the four schools’ librarians – Melissa Dorish at Pond Hill, Laura McCall at Fritz, Melanie Widman at Rock Hill, and Fredricksen – and planning started last year.

“This is a huge undertaking with many components and we knew from planning one in 2019 that we had to be meticulous and organized,” Dorish said. “I work with the most amazing 3-5 library team and together, we made magic happen at Family Night.”

Dorish said that she joked that organizing the event was like planning a wedding, but “it’s really sort of true.”

“We all worked so well together to make the night a huge success,” she said.

Widman said the librarians started planning the event in August.

“We met virtually, as well as in person, quite often brainstorming, organizing and planning an event for all of our families,” she said.

McCall said they followed the process that was established four years ago when they hosted their first Four Schools, One Book (4S1B) event.

“We try to organize 4S1B in sections: planning for reveal day, the daily reading and student motivation piece, the culminating event, and the final reflection,” she said. “We spend countless hours reviewing every possible detail to ensure that nothing is forgotten. We want our families to have the best possible experience.”

Seeing the result of Monday’s event made all the hard work worth it for the librarians.

“The best part of the culminating event is witnessing the community coming together in celebration of reading,” McCall said.

Fredricksen said it was “such a feeling of pride seeing how many staff members were willing to volunteer their time to help bring the event to life.”

“The saying ‘many hands make light work’ couldn’t be more applicable here,” she said. “For all the work we did planning, there is no way this event could take place without the help of so many. Our own family members came to help and support us as well. I was also grateful that several Board of Education members and members of our Central Office staff came to enjoy and support the evening. I was very happy with the turnout and with the flow and ‘vibe’ of the night. There was a lot of positive, happy energy.”

Dorish said the night was a “blur of adrenaline, excitement, nerves and relief.”

“Overall, it was a big success and we have gotten many wonderful compliments,” she said. “The smiles on the students’ faces both that night and the next day in school definitely told the story of how much fun they had. I think the families also had a great time. But perhaps the most fun might have been experienced by our four principals during the Iditarod musher race! It was so MUSH fun! At the end of the night, all our hard work was completely worth it!”

The indoor “Iditarod musher race” featured the west side team of Christina Sagnella, principal of Parker Farms, and Eric Carbone, principal of Mary G. Fritz. The east side team consisted of Lisa Carlson, principal of Rock Hill, and Greg Dirkson, principal of Pond Hill.

The race featured four checkpoints, where the principals switched positions – musher became sled dog, sled dog became musher. They were also given a challenge at each checkpoint for the next stretch of the race.

At the start of the race, they encountered “rough terrain,” with the sled dog’s movement a bit constricted by exercise bands around their ankles. At the first checkpoint, the sled dog needed “snowshoes” and had to walk in shoe boxes.

At the second checkpoint, the sled dog switched to “dog booties” to protect their hard-working paws. The third checkpoint featured a “cold snap” where the racers needed to stop three times to allow the mushers to bundle up with gloves, a coat, and a scarf.

At the fourth and final checkpoint, the “sled dogs” needed to show a unique talent by balancing a copy of the “Sled Dog School” book on their head as they headed toward the finish line.

Carbone recovered from a rough start, when he was accidentally tipped off his wagon, to make the race a nail-biter.

“It was an exciting finish as Mrs. Sagnella crossed the finish line first - but people quickly realized that she did not have the book on her head,” Dorish said. “So, because Mrs. Carlson and Mr. Dirkson crossed just after, with the book on Mrs. Carlson’s head, they were the official winners! What an exciting finish!”

Fredrickson said the “true winners of the race will be a hotly debated topic for years to come.”

“Bragging rights run deep between these principals,” she said. “Most importantly, though, they were wonderful and willing participants who knew very little about what they were going to encounter, yet trusted and supported us completely and had a blast!”