Raising Money For Two Local Residents —

Sandy Hook Students Peddle Paraphernalia Out Of Pushcarts 

By Jeff White

“One heart magnet left!” Sandy Hook fifth grader Travis Hunter shouted, pointing to several small boxes that had gradually grown empty as the morning progressed. A few key chains remained, as did a few pieces of candy and a baseball card. And a lone heart magnet.

“Ooooonnnnneeeee heeeee aaaaarrrrrttttt maaaaaggggg nnnnneeeeet left!”

Travis and his partner, Michael Kennedy, pedaled their wares at passersby – mostly other Sandy Hook School students who got an opportunity last Friday morning to peruse a plethora of painted pushcarts in the school’s cafeteria. Sandy Hook School’s 5th annual Pushcart Day, and event that turns the fifth grade class into the New York City pushcart vendors of old, raised over $2,400 for Bill Marsilio and Greg Chion, two Newtown residents who are fighting cancer.

Carts were fashioned out of old wheelbarrows and even older Radio Red wagons, each constructed out of sturdy cardboard, wood, construction paper, and other household items. The fifth grade vendors were shaded by large, multicolored umbrellas and slanted, wooden roofs.

Students were divided into groups of twos and threes, and the merchandise each group sold proved as varied as the pushcarts themselves. On large price lists tacked onto each pushcart, groups recorded the prices for the different candies, sports cards, scrunchies, key chains, jewelry, and small, potted flowers that proved popular among shoppers.

Admittedly, the items on sale last Friday did not break the banks of patrons; prices hovered between 10 and 50 cents, though more expensive merchandise, like picture frames and student made piñatas, commanded $1outlays.

What was remarkable is that most of the items on sale, aside from the obviously manufactured baseball cards and candy, were student made. Fifth graders made their own necklaces and bracelets, baked their own cookies, and sewed their own hair scrunchies.

Students kept carefully recorded tally sheets by their cash boxes, in order to record how much of their products they sold, and how much profit they were making from each sale. Fifth grade teacher Bev Bjorklund meandered around the clustered pushcarts, carrying plastic baggies filled with the earnings of different groups. Since teachers wanted to make sure that fifth graders didn’t have too much money on them at any one time, Mrs Bjorklund served as the event’s bank.

“We try to show them what commerce is all about,” she said. As the last bits of candy were bought up that morning, student sat down to figure out how much they had sold, how much they had spent for their products, and how much the resulting profit was.

“It helps with our math curriculum,” Mrs Bjorklund added. “We try to make this a learning experience.”

Indeed Pushcart Day at Sandy Hook has its roots in the classroom. During its first years, the event was simply an activity for fifth graders in Cathy Mazzariello’s classroom. But it soon grew in popularity, and, naturally, had to find space that accommodated the growth of pushcarts from year to year. This year, nearly 50 of them butted up against each other in the cafeteria.

Students had been preparing for the event, officially and unofficially, for about a month. Along with working on a math unit dealing with money, fifth graders read Jean Merill’s The Pushcart Wars, a novel about the days when New York City pushcart vendors regularly took on the big delivery trucks for business.

Did this year’s Pushcart Day manage to rekindle some of that old competitiveness? While most students said they were just happy to earn money for Greg Chion and Bill Marsilio (Greg went through Sandy Hook School, and Bill’s son and daughter were also Sandy Hook students), some did acknowledge little price wars with neighboring pushcarts.

Kyla Miles and her partner, Sally Tabler, were busy coaxing customers over to their booth and, hopefully, away from the booth of Travis Hunter and Michael Kennedy. Asked if there was competition, Kyla affirmed, “Yes there is, and we are making more than them.”

To be sure, each pushcart held a name meant to distinguish it among a sea of other pushcarts. There was “Two Guys and a Pushcart,” “Welcome to the Sweet Thang,” “Spencer and Alex’s Cock-A-Doodle-Doo Farms,” and “The Funky Monkey.”

The efforts to have the pushcart with the best name notwithstanding, Sandy Hook fifth graders were mostly happy to play the part of street vendors for the day, an enterprise that was not as easy as it appeared.

“We have to be able to run a business and take care of the money and do it on our own,” said Jacob Rebb, who opted to sell a wide assortment of gifts for mom, in honor of Mother’s Day.

“You really have to understand prices and make bargains,” his partner, Ashley Thompson, added.

Other participants in the boisterous bazaar echoed these sentiments. “I’m learning about the strategies to sell well,” explained Travis Hunter.

For Nicole Beatty’s part, she enjoyed watching the selling strategies of other pushcarts. “It’s also fun to see everyone else and how they do it.”

And, of course, there were the patrons themselves, Sandy Hook students happy to get a break during their day to shop for their favorite candy or a packet of baseball cards. “I like buying candy the most,” said second grader Kyle Moore. “I’ve been looking forward [to Pushcart Day] for a while, because it’s fun.”