Students make ‘Woonsocket Proud’ with contest entries
Nap Lajoie-themed essays, artwork on display at Museum of Work & Culture; winners announced
WOONSOCKET — A big crowd of city fifth graders, their family members and teachers celebrated being “Woonsocket Proud” at the Museum of Work & Culture on Thursday after completing an essay contest and project exhibit taking note of Baseball Hall of Famer Napoleon Lajoie, a turn-of-the-century Woonsocketeer.
The open house event included the display of the students’ projects in the Rhode Island Historical Society affiliated Museum’s upstairs gallery space and the award of prizes for the essays written by fifth graders from Kevin K. Coleman Elementary, Leo A. Savoie, Citizens Memorial, Bernon Heights and Globe Park.
The Museum’s Woonsocket Proud educational program was funded this year with a grant from Verizon. The essay contest was judged by Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt,
Woonsocket Superintendent of Schools Patrick McGee, Geralyn Ducady, director of the Rhode Island Historical Society’s Newell D. Goff Center for Education and Public Programs, and Greg Rubano, the author of two books on Lajoie, the youth book “Before the Babe, the Emperor,” and the biography “In Ty Cobb’s Shadow: the Story of Napoleon Lajoie, Baseball’s First Superstar.”
During her remarks to the gathering in the Museum’s Industrial Trades Union Hall, Anne Conway, Museum director, said students have much to learn when they visit the Museum.
“The Museum tells the story of the people who came to Woonsocket, who integrated here, whether they integrated 100 years ago or integrated 10 years ago, it’s all a story we can share and we can understand,” she said. “It is the story of the people who came to work in the mills and I think that you guys have done such a great job with all of your art work, showing and sharing what you have learned this year so let’s have a round of applause for all your teachers.”
In addition to thanking those responsible for this year’s essay contests and projects, Conway also credited Baldelli-Hunt with being a strong supporter of the Museum and its educational programs. “Without her, this museum would not get the support that it gets. We are just so happy to be working closely with her,” she said, while noting the mayor’s service as a judge for the essay contest.
Baldelli-Hunt herself said she was pleased to see a large crowd of students, family members and school staff attending the program’s concluding ceremony this year.
“I just want to tell you this is amazing, I have never seen so many people turn out for this event,” she noted.
Baldelli-Hunt said she has served as a judge for the essay contest before but didn’t find the task any easier to complete this year. “Let me tell you, it is not easy being a judge,” Baldelli-Hunt said while describing all of the entries as prize winners.
The essays focused on Napoleon Lajoie’s early life in the city, the difficulties he faced and overcame and then how he also found success in baseball, a sport he loved from his early days in the city, and what that could mean to residents of the city today.
“Napoleon Lajoie was extremely proud of the community he came from and it is good to teach our youth how he became a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, how he was proud of his community and how that transfers to them today,” Baldelli-Hunt said.
The event on Thursday also highlighted some of the computer technology now available to students in city schools such as the tablets used in making videos to go along with the student’s Napoleon Lajoie projects and 3-D printers that created models of Lajoie’s ballparks and the mills in which he worked while starting out in life.
Baldelli-Hunt said that the city’s goal is to have a 3-D printer in all the schools so that students can make use of the latest technology in their school work.
“I am excited by that. I have a 3-D printed key chain made for me by the students at Bernon Heights and it was a real hit,” she said.
Baldelli-Hunt thanked Verizon for its support for this year’s contest and exhibit and also Rubano for his role in teaching the students the history of not only Napoleon Lajoie but Woonsocket’s other native Baseball Hall of Famer, Charles “Gaby” Harnett, too.
“We are fortunate within the city not only to have one Hall of Famer in the Baseball Hall of Fame but two Hall of Famers in the Baseball Hall of Fame that come from the city of Woonsocket,” she said.
“So congratulations to everyone involved but congratulations to the students, you did phenomenal work and you should just applaud yourselves and really be proud of everything that you did.
“You are going to be successful. I can tell just by looking at you. So congratulations to you,” she said.
Rubano noted how Lajoie’s story can still inspire local young people of today. He was born in the city on Sept. 5, 1847, to French Canadian parents, Jean Baptiste and Ce- lina (Guertin) Lajoie, as one of eight surviving children.
“He didn’t speak English initially and his father died when he was just 6,” Rubano noted. “After his father died, he lived in nine different places in just a year and half,” the author said while noting his mother’s struggles to provide for a large family after losing her husband. Lajoie eventually took on the role of provider while dropping out of school to work in the local mills and also became a teamster driving horse-drawn wagons and serving as a taxi driver. He also started playing baseball at an early age and became known as the “Frenchman” while making his way up through the industrial and semi-professional leagues before being signed by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1896, hitting for a record batting average of .426 in 1901, and then playing for Cleveland for much of his professional baseball career before retiring from the sport in December of 1918.
Rubano said Lajoie’s message is one of never giving up on a dream. He worked hard at different jobs in his early days but did not lose sight of what he wanted to do.
“While he was working all those jobs, he never thought that would mean he couldn’t live the dream he always had. The dream to live the game of baseball,” Rubano said.
McGee also took note the increased participation in the Woonsocket Proud project’s concluding event saying it was the largest gathering in the nine years the program has been held.
“It is amazing as I look out to see the number of students, parents, community members, educators,” McGee said, “it’s incredible, so great job.”
McGee thanked all the school department staff, Museum participants and volunteers involved in making the Napoleon Lajoie exhibit and essay contest a success but also pointed out the role of local students.
“I want to thank our children, our students here. Lets give them an incredible round of applause. We are so, so proud of them each and every day and the work that they do,” McGee said. “And as Mayor Baldelli-Hunt said, we were judges again this year and the essay contest required very, very difficult decisions to make because of all of the essays were wonderful, they were heart warming, they were inspirational.
“So again I want to thank everyone for coming out and making this possible.”
Sarah Carr, Museum assistant director and program coordinator, the each participating Woonsocket fifth-grader created a tile describing something they are proud of, be it a personal accomplishment or their family, school, or community, that then became part of a classroom’s mosaic-style board for the classroom exhibits at the Museum. The projects, including the 3-D models will be on display in the upstairs gallery space through June 18.
Winning classrooms in the poster project included Tracey Paskanik’s class from Leo A. Savoie Elementary, Elizabeth Robert’s class from Harris Elementary, and Angela Malo’s class from Citizen’s Elementary. Each student in Paskanick’s class will receive two passes to the Museum of Work & Culture, Carr said.
In the essay contest, students were asked to reflect on Lajoie’s character and tenacity, Carr said, and explain how they planned to pursue their passion to become a person their community could be proud of.
The Museum received more than 200 entries from participating schools and the judges selected a grand-prize winner as well as a winner from each school.
School winners included Cassidy Cofske from Globe Park Elementary, Mansour Dieng and Kassandra Rodriguez from Bernon Heights Elementary, Carissa Desper from Harris Elementary, Angelleigh Cruickshank from Citizens Memorial Elementary, Emily Douang from Leo A. Savoie Elementary and Angeliea Ortiz from Kevin K. Coleman Elementary, Carr said. Each of students received three Pawtucket Red Sox tickets.
Carr said the grand prize essay winner was Jenny Ortiz’s from Leo A. Savoie Elementary, who received a family membership to the Rhode Island Historical Society and four Pawtucket Red Sox tickets.
Videos of the winners reading their essays can be viewed at
The Woonsocket Proud program also included educational tours of the Museum for each class, featuring a special presentation by Rubano on the life of Napoleon Lajoie. The program was made possible by a $2,000 Senate grant sponsored by Senators Marc A. Cote and Roger Picard, Carr noted.
The program will expand in the fall, when the Museum will adapt the civic pride themes to Woonsocket’s eighth-grade curriculum, Carr said. The expanded program is being made possible through a $3,000 House grant sponsored by Representatives Stephen M. Casey, Michael A. Morin, and Robert D. Phillips.
Ortiz’s winning essay entry follows: