Sixth Grade Students Share Their Light For Relay For Life

By Eliza Hallabeck

Sixth grade students at the Reed Intermediate School have been spending extra time in the health department because that is where the markers and paper bags are for them to create luminarias for Relay For Life.

This is the fifth year Relay For Life will be taking place in Newtown, but it is the second year that sixth grade students have been designing their own luminarias for the occasion. Luminarias are white paper bags that have sand and candles in them, and the sixth graders have been leaving their own personal mark on them.

According to Kathy Nostraind, a secretary at Reed Intermediate School and the co-chair of sales for Relay For Life, the number of students who created luminarias this year is a lot greater than last year. There will be three winners for the Relay For Life Luminary Art Contest, and they will be determined by how many students vote for their luminaria.

This year’s Relay For Life will be held June 7–8 at Newtown High School. The luminarias created by the sixth grade students will be used to light up the stadium while spelling out the word hope.

“The participation level this year is absolutely amazing,” said Laura Warren, the luminaria chair for Relay For Life in Newtown who has been volunteering her time on the project.

As of Monday, 67 luminarias had been created by students. Ms Warren said she spent the lunch periods on Monday and Tuesday of this week in the cafeteria at Reed overseeing the students voting for their favorite luminaria.

For every vote that the students make it costs $1, and the proceeds will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

“It’s an awareness and participation thing,” said Ms Nostraind, who said the luminarias are more about the students getting involved than they are about the money they will raise.

Mrs Nostraind came up with the idea last year, according to Ms Warren. She also said they have been working together with Relay For Life for years.

Jessie Principi, a student who created one of the luminarias, said she was thinking of “how many people’s lives we will be saving through this fundraiser,” when she created hers.

Jessie said she spent two periods working on her luminaria.

“I wanted to help the people who have cancer,” she said.

These are not the only luminarias that are being created for Relay For Life in Newtown this year, but this is the only contest for them in the town.

Michelle Failla, a health teacher at Reed, said she has opened her classroom for the students who want to volunteer their time to create luminarias. She said one day there were more than 40 students who showed up, and it created a packed room.

“There was no extra credit,” said Ms Failla. “There was no ulterior motive.”

She said she was amazed when students gave up their recess on sunny days in order to create luminarias.