Ossining Teachers Set Example for Students in "Pay It Forward" Project

Roosevelt School Principal Corey W. Reynolds issued a challenge to students during an assembly in early December: Start thinking about something they could do to help their neighbors, town, village or the world.

The task is part of the Capstone Project – a long-term assignment that students complete in the fifth, eighth and 12th grades. The theme for fifth-graders this year is “Pay It Forward.”

“Paying it forward means to do something nice for someone without wanting to be rewarded for it, without wanting to be paid for it, without wanting to be acknowledged for it, and in the hopes that your kind action will help someone else to do a kind action for someone else in the future,” Dr. Reynolds said.

Teachers provided students with the first example of Paying It Forward when they unveiled a hand-made, 30-panel quilt they had created for one of their colleagues. Some of the messages on the panels included “Keep calm and fight on,” “We always have your back” and “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up,” a famous Babe Ruth quote.

They had kept the project quiet and surprised teacher William Casey with their gift. The fifth-grade teacher -- a middle school and high school baseball coach and Yankees fan – was diagnosed with cancer in October 2014. He had major surgery over the summer and returned to work in October. He has taught in Ossining since 2004.

“I’ve been blessed with a great family and extended family,” he said after receiving the quilt. “They’ve been unbelievable at all the schools. There are so many people who have reached out to me.”

This is the second year of the Capstone Project, which serves as a “capstone” to students’ studies and requires them to apply skills they have acquired in technology, research, reading, writing, speaking and presentation.

For their fifth-grade Capstone Project, all the students will pay it forward to someone, something or a group, Dr. Reynolds said. He played a five-minute film that shows people performing random acts of kindness, such as a construction worker helping a boy who fell off his skateboard and the skateboarder carrying bags across the street for an elderly woman. At the end of the video, a waitress gives a glass of water to the construction worker.

The Capstone program was piloted last year in a few fifth-grade classes, and all eighth-graders completed the project. It is a four-year initiative at Ossining High School and this year’s freshman class is the first to participate.

At Roosevelt School last year, a few classes of fifth-graders created advertising campaigns advocating for causes, such as saving mustang horses and not using animal fur to make clothing. The work tied in with the integrated social studies and English/language arts curriculum, whose common theme was that students can change the world. This is the first year all fifth-graders are participating in the project.

For the Pay It Forward project, teachers will be giving out rubber bracelets when they see someone perform a random act of kindness, Dr. Reynolds said. “It is part of our curriculum, but it is also a part of what makes us good citizens,” he said.

He gave the first bracelet to teacher Julia Karam, who came up with the idea of making a quilt for Mr. Casey. Starting this past summer, teachers at Roosevelt and Claremont schools designed panels for a quilt, and Ms. Karam sewed them together.

Everyone is born into a family, but that doesn’t mean that relatives are the only family, Ms. Karam said. Family can include friends, teachers and others.

“In many ways, the teachers at Roosevelt School consider their students to be their children for a year,” she continued. “We do our best to love and support you. Similarly, the teachers at Roosevelt School are like a family.”

Ms. Karam said that if anyone deserves a random act of kindness, it is Mr. Casey for remaining strong and positive during his battle with cancer. He has also found time to be kind, caring and supportive of those around him. Mr. Casey is a “devoted teacher, coach, father and husband,” she said.

“You are truly one of the strongest people that we know,” she said. “However, every strong person needs to know that there are family and friends rooting for them, cheering them on. So we hope this quilt serves as a reminder that you are respected, admired and loved by all of us here in Ossining.

Mr. Casey, who is married with 3-year-old twins -- said he was touched by what his colleagues did for him. He said his goals are to always be a better person and friend and have a better outlook on life. “No one’s taking me down, but it certainly helps to have all the support,” he said.