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| Contributed photo Mixing it up at lunch are, from left, Zimra Winters, Melissa Cantafio, Brynn Doherty and Parick Masaad. |
By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — Forget the walls, if the tables of the Limestone Community School Cafeteria could talk, they’d have scores of diverse stories to tell; that’s because they see all ranges of students through the course of a day, starting with the little tykes of pre-K all the way up to seniors at two different schools as they make plans to embark on adulthood.
With so many students and so many stories, Guidance Councilor of the Limestone Community School Rani Belanger coordinated Limestone’s involvement in the tenth annual Teaching Tolerance initiative, aimed at breaking down social barriers through a “Mix It Up At Lunch Day.”
Aside from housing elementary, middle and high school students, the Limestone Community School facility is also home to the Maine School of Science and Mathematics — a public boarding school that offers advanced curriculum in science, mathematics and the humanities for grades 9-12.
Though there are separate lunch times for the elementary, middle and high school, all students deviated from the daily norm on Oct. 27 and were challenged to eat lunch with different peer groups.
“We thought it would raise awareness of diversity and to help break down social barriers, and hopefully have the students interact with peers that they may not typically have interacted with,” Belanger said. “We thought it would be a great idea to have LCS and MSSM participate in this project together. Although we are in the same building, our students don’t always have the opportunity to engage with one another.”
Judging from the positive feedback Belanger and other project coordinators received, the day was well received by all students — some have even asked Belanger how they can help with next year’s Mix It Up at Lunch event.
“I think that the event was successful in part due to all of the support by staff in talking about the event with students in days and weeks leading up to the Mix It Up Day event,” Belanger explained.
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| Contributed photo Spending some quality lunch time moments with MSSM student Benjamin Schad, second from right, are LCS students, from left, Jared Elliott, Jeremy Biastre, Dylan Nadeau and Sabrina Keller. |
During the program’s first year at the community school, students were presented with a “mixer” when they walked into the cafeteria, which contained a brightly colored square of paper that determined which table they would sit at.
Sitting with a new group of students, icebreaker questions were posed to help the youths transition into easy conversations; older students were given questions such as “If you could have lunch with anyone from the past, present or future, who would it be and why?” and “If you could visit a foreign country, where would it be and why?” while younger students were given easier topics, like “If you could go anywhere, where would it be?”
“The icebreakers got students talking, but they took it from there and had a great time,” Belanger said.
For students that may have been a little shy, there were plenty of community volunteers and staff members from both schools who helped facilitate conversation and engage students with the icebreaker questions. Members of Limestone’s Civil Rights Team even ate lunch with the elementary students to help them with the project.
“It was fun to sit with the big kids at lunch,” some elementary students said.
Belanger said that the school intends to participate in Mix It Up At Lunch Day next year.
