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Students serve up food, song
By jeanne starmack
campbell
Thanksgiving is about tradition, and this year, Campbell Elementary School started a new one.
In past years, the second-grade Thanksgiving musical and the second-grade feast, provided by parents, were on different days.
It was hard, said music teacher Ryan Stowell, for parents to get off work to attend both functions.
So this year, he said, the two events were combined. About 90 second-graders dressed as turkeys, pilgrims and Indians entertained Friday afternoon on stage in the cafeteria at the elementary school while in the back of the room, turkey, mashed potatoes, Greek salad and Spanish rice awaited in a mouth-watering array that filled several long tables.
The lunch, explained Dr. Robert Walls, principal, is as much a celebration of Campbell’s various ethnic groups as it is about Thanksgiving.
Of course, there’s always pumpkin pie, he added as parents and friends, cameras at the ready, filled the room. Attendance was not sparse this year — plenty of food and plenty of people to eat it.
The kids had been practicing their songs and poems since September. And for such little people, their voices were big — good and loud, and enthusiastic: “I don’t like Thanksgiving. It’s the saddest time of year. When the leaves are falling, just get me out of here,” the turkeys sang.
Three songs and several poems later — “there was still some dessert, so I guess it won’t hurt if I eat just a little bit more” — it was chow-down time.
Charity Ginnis and Gina Kindinis, PTO members who have sons, both named George, in second grade, were directing the lines and spooning out goodies.
Kindinis’ sister-in-law, Maria Svinos, explained her contribution to the banquet. "Greek rice stuffing,” she said, which includes ground meat, rice and cinnamon.
A family Thanksgiving treat? “We have it every holiday,” she said.
The feast provides a taste of tradition, said Ginnis and Sandy Williams, mom of second-grader Jordan. For many families, the gathering of 20 to 30 people at the table is a thing of the past, they said.
“The tradition is gone,” Williams said.
It’s true, though, that no one at the school feast was missing the community of friends and family.
At one table, several second-graders sat together, reflected on the day and analyzed their performance.
Jayona Hewlett, 8, played a turkey. Did her portrayal make her feel sorry for the birds because of their fate?
“No,” she said. But she does eat ham on Thanksgiving instead.
William McCree, 7, thinks he was a better actor than a singer. He showed how he mouthed song lyrics without making a sound. “I didn’t really say a word,” he said. “Hey, are you going to put that in the paper?”