Congrats to the Melrose Education Foundation

When I was a high school teacher in Boston, my Community Leadership class received a $600 grant to study the issue of housing fragility for children and older residents. Half was spent on a video camera to document our projects (which was then reused for other school events) and the remainder was used to:

- Paint a family mural in a shelter for women and children
- Donate new bedding to the same shelter (they had never received brand new bedding before)
- Run a toy drive for three shelters for children
- Volunteer multiple times at two publicly supported senior housing locations, including BINGO, chair exercise, and karaoke (there may be footage out there

All of that is to say that our $600 grant went a very long way in changing how I taught and how my class interacted with their community. The next year, the Community Leadership class became the capstone course for all students to take in order to graduate.

So these flamingos not only bring joy, but also they mean something exciting can happen in the Melrose Public Schools.