Teasing a teaching moment

Student raises $130 for younger brother’s hearing treatment center

EAST HAMPTON — An 8-year-old frustrated by a classmate teasing his little brother took it upon himself to turn his feelings into a positive project which taught a valuable lesson to his fellow third-graders.

Memorial School student Logan Supinski was at lunch with his friends one day recently when a couple began making fun of William, his 6-year-old brother who has been deaf since 1.

“‘Your brother is funny looking. He has those weird things in his head,’ ” the boys’ mother, Nicole Supinski, said.

Logan talked to the Vice Principal Brandy Gadoury and she suggested he do a Genius Hour project, which the class does Fridays, said his teacher Beth Haydu.

“Students choose their own topic, research it, and then create a project to teach others about their topic. The Genius Hour concept is similar to the concept Google started with its employees,” she added.

Her goal was not only to stop the teasing but turn the incident into a teachable moment.

Logan, a popular student, owned the poster project from the beginning. In fact, his mother had no idea he was working on it.

“I didn’t know he had followed through with it until the reading celebration at the end of the year. After he did the project, so many kids were interested in it, he wanted to do more.”

Haydu and Supinski weren’t sure how to guide him in raising money. But Logan had the solution.

“‘Don’t worry, I’ll do it on my own,’ ” he told his mother, who thought at the most Logan would raise $20.

After the writing celebration during which all the children in school had their work displayed, Logan asked his teacher if he could collect money to donate to CREC: Soundbridge, which provides specialized expertise and technology to promote listening and speaking in children with hearing loss, according to its website.

The organization provides services for William at his school and the office in Wethersfield.

The 8-year-old gathered things he had at home, such as pencils, erasers, sports cards and cool pops. The only thing he needed help with was purchasing powdered Gatorade, something the children added to their water bottles, he said.

Logan sold each for $1 one day for a week.

When he told her he’d gathered $130, his mother and school staff were shocked.

“‘What? In a week, by yourself ?’ ” Supinski remembers saying.

“It could have led to a bullying thing, but he was able to nip it in the bud and turn it into a teaching experience,” she added.

His maternal grandmother, Gail Scranton, was also unaware of Logan’s intentions until her daughter told her.

“I thought it was great. He’s a very smart kid and very compassionate. He’s protective of his brother and cousins. He’s just that kind of kid. He’s a roughand-tough boy,” said Scranton, who said Logan simply wanted to explain to his classmates the purpose of his brother’s hearing devices.

The project earned him an award from the principal.

Logan took a few moments from fishing Tuesday afternoon at the beach. He wasn’t sure what he’d catch using squid for bait.

Last summer, he caught a sand shark, which didn’t phase him one bit, he said.

Supinski said some of the parents have since contacted her to say they didn’t even know their children were bringing in money to buy goodies.

Logan said the students got the money “from their wallets,” then agreed it was likely from their allowance.

“I brought in enough that could go in a bag from the grocery store,” he said. Haydu helped him out with the cool pops by freezing them in the teacher’s lounge, he said.

The children were allowed to eat them at lunch.

Another Genius Hour project Logan was working on was about the Boston Marathon bombing. “He had seen the movie and wanted to know more about it,” Haydu said.

“Logan is shy but was comfortable getting up in front of our class and the other class that participated in his fundraising,” she added. “Kindness has been a big district theme this year. He did come out of his shell a little bit.”

Logan could have done posters on anything he wanted, Supinski said. “It could be on sports, so for him to take something that wasn’t one of his interests” was remarkable, she said. “You could tell he was proud of himself.”

She was thrilled to see her son come out of his shell.

“A couple of his teachers came up to me afterward and said they could see the confidence in him (emerge). He’s always been a really shy kid. He’s never one to raise his hand and speak up. He’s really smart, but he’s more of a quiet type,” his mom said.

William wasn’t sure what he thought about it, because also doesn’t like to be the center of attention, Supinski said.

“Because he’s been mainstream since he was 3, he doesn’t think he’s different — he’s just like any other kid, which is what I want him to be, but when it comes down to things like this, he does forget that,” she said.

Logan is already thinking about similar benefits he can do in fourth grade at Center School, such as buying books for his classmates to read in the library, he said.

In August, Logan will show off his poster at the superintendent’s board meeting.

Supinski is pleased with Logan’s initiative on several levels.

“It shows kids they can be teachers themselves, and maybe there are other situations — there are other special ed kids around — and I feel kids accept (a message) coming from their peers better than the teacher telling them something,” she said.

Contributed photo Logan Supinski, right, a student at Memorial School in East Hampton, has a brother, William, left, who is deaf and has had cochlear implants since he was 1. Logan raised $130 recently for CREC: Soundbridge of Rocky Hill, where his brother receives services, through a fundraising project he devised on his own.

Contributed photo Logan Supinski, shown with his parents and family, owned the poster project from the start. His mother had no idea he was working on it.