WHS students Fall for History
Photo by JOSH MCDONALD Local historian Ron Roizen discusses legendary photographer Nellie Stockbridge with students in Tina Brackebusch’s classroom.
Photo by JOSH MCDONALD Students enjoy a Skype interview in the library with Bruce Flohr as part of the Wallace Fall for History essay contest.
WALLACE — Over the past two years, the Wallace Fall for History event has become a landmark event for the town, so it is no surprise that this love for history has trickled down into the student body at Wallace Jr./Sr. High School.
Earlier this week, the eighth- and 11th-grade students at WHS participated in several group-style interviews to gain information for the Fall for History Essay Contest.
The contest is an offshoot of a popular event from last year’s Fall for History event, borrowing some of the main principles from that idea and then expanding upon them.
“The original idea came from last years event ‘A Cemetery Comes to Life,’” Fall for History committee member Corki Mattila said. “The Fall for History committee wanted all of the subjects to be buried at the 9 Mile Cemetery. Once I got involved, we decided we needed the help of the school. Also we’ve learned that many people who have helped to shape Wallace aren’t buried in the Wallace Cemetery. Most of the subjects on this year’s list were, but not all. Now the primary factor is, did this person help Wallace to be what it was and what it is today.”
The students had the ability to choose from a variety of subjects, including Guido Firpo Bardelli, Nellie Stockbridge, Don and Denise Conley, Mary and Milton Flohr, Kathryn Gyde, Herman Rossi, Mary White Gordon, Harry and Gus Voltolini, and some students even chose relatives that were important to the shaping of Wallace.
A project of this magnitude required quite a bit of coordination, both between the Fall for History Committee and the school, but also between several teachers in the school’s English and history departments.
Once the idea became a reality, it was decided that only the two age groups would be participating, which will really help sustain this event over the coming years.
“Our history and English departments worked together on the logistics for this,” WHS teacher Tina Brackebusch said. “Because we would like to participate in this each year, we decided we should limit the grades participating so the students wouldn’t find it redundant. We felt seventh-graders would have a difficult time finishing a research/writing project in the time given.”
The project also allowed the students to get a historical glimpse of residential Wallace, which helped humanize these historical figures.
“Corki came to the school on Thursday last week to give a brief synopsis of each historical figure,” Brackebusch said. “Following that, each class went on a 30-minute walking tour of the Wallace residential area to identify houses where some of the people once lived. The students then chose a person to research based on that information.”
Mattila, along with the rest of the Fall for History Committee, worked together to compile the list of the subjects this year, but Mattila, a former teacher herself, took point in coming up with a solid list of subjects for the kids to work on.
Mattila used her knowledge of local Wallace history, as well as some personal experience, to give the kids a broad array of subjects to pick from.
“I was the primary on the list because up to this point, I had done all the research and having lived in Wallace since I was 15, I knew people who knew people,” Mattila said. “I also knew several of the people on this year’s list. The hope is this will be an ongoing project and we will have different names each year. If we feel we didn't get enough about some of the figures, we may invite speakers again for that person. The other hope is the students have fun with this and look forward to it every year.”
And according to Brackebusch, the students seemed to enjoy the interviews and the project as a whole as well.
“They seemed genuinely interested and fascinated that Wallace once had such influential residents,” Brackebusch said. “Several students stayed well past 3 p.m. to continue visiting with one presenter.”
When high schoolers start giving up their free time for a school project, you know you’re doing something right.
The winners of the essay contest will be announced during this year’s Fall for History event, and it may even be read by the students who win.
The student will also be given the opportunity to dress up as the person from their essay during the Fall for History cemetery tour.