What lengths would you go to celebrate your favorite teacher?
WXXI’s Education reporter Noelle Evans takes us to a town park in Henrietta, where a group of Rush-Henrietta Central School District alumni spearheaded a project to celebrate teachers and mentors in what is now called the “Educators Grove.”
The Town of Henrietta has scheduled a ceremony for Saturday to celebrate the project’s beginning. A few construction vehicles sit where a parking lot is planned. A fully-working restroom facility would go next to it and a winding trail would lead visitors to benches, trees, bricks and possible public art pieces to celebrate educators who made a positive impact on students and the community — if all goes according to plan.
WXXI’s Education reporter Noelle Evans takes listeners to the grove at Hoskins Park in Henrietta ahead of the groundbreaking.
A transcription of the radio broadcast story is below.
STEVE SCHULTZ: Hi. My name is Steve Schultz. I'm in my seventh year as Henrietta town supervisor. We're in Hoskins Park, standing on the trail that we're starting to install as part of the Educators Grove.
EVANS: How did this start for you? This project?
SCHULTZ: Howard Ressel and a few others came to us, approached us about this idea. I told them, I have a park that might be perfect for it.
HOWARD RESSEL: My name is Howard Ressel, and I'm the chair of the Educators Grove Committee and member of the Friends of Henrietta Parks and Recreation. We originally wanted to plant a few trees for a couple teachers. The first two trees go to the two people who were involved in our theater program. So, one is Bob Sagan, and the other is Paul Cimicata, who was the musical director who worked with him for many, many years.
EVANS: I want to say, leave it to the theater kids to pull something like this.
RESSEL: (laughs) We just had such a passion for the experiences we had in school, and we wanted to give back something to it.
EVANS: Where does it all start?
SCHULTZ: So basically, the trail would come this way. This area is still under construction, so watch your step.
EVANS: So this wooded area back here, is this part of the park?
SCHULTZ: It is. The idea is, we wanted to have different levels that people could donate. So, bricks, benches, trees. There'll be some benches here for quiet contemplation. You can feel the wind coming through, but we're gonna put in some trees to screen off the northern edge.
EVANS: It’s a nice little clearing.
SCHULTZ: Yep, it basically loops around and it comes back out over here.
RESSEL: The park is like anything else. It's a living thing. As we talked about, we have all these ideas and they'll evolve over time as the park evolves.
SCHULTZ: So I’m gonna pause here. You see this square in here is where there's gonna be the flag poles, a flower area, and then probably the front of the flower area will be like a bench.
EVANS: It's nice to see that this would be like a public square in a way.
SCHULTZ: Right?
EVANS: Was that the intention all along?
RESSEL: I didn’t really think about it that way, but it kind of is like that. People can come over here, you know, for half hour during their lunchtime, and sit and relax and contemplate things. Does become like a small corner park, town square.
EVANS: Yeah? And there was a guy that came here earlier who was just planning to have his lunch.
RESSEL: Yeah, I've seen that before.
EVANS: So, Howard, former theater kid.
RESSEL: Former theater kid, former Rush-Henrietta graduate.
EVANS: Yeah. What about you, Steve? What was your thing in school?
SCHULTZ: I was a mathlete.
EVANS: Did you get picked on in school for it?
SCHULTZ: Oh, of course we did.
RESSEL: Yeah, so did we.
SCHULTZ: Yeah. Theater kids got picked on, too.
RESSEL: Not so much for being a theater kid. Just, I wasn’t good at sports, so I was always the last one to be picked. But then one day, I was walking down the hall, and I think it was Hugh Gray, the musical director for the eighth grade school, says, ‘Do you want to be in a play?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ I don't know how or why, but I did, and then I found backstage and I've loved it ever since, so it’s — find what works for you.
EVANS: Yeah, and then the teachers that help you on your path.
SCHULTZ: RIght. So, for me, I had a really good math teacher, so I was actually a problem kid in school, because I would get bored and I would give my teachers hell. But then I found a teacher who recognized it and challenged me. So he wouldn't give me the same homework that everyone else got. He'd give me these really challenging problems, and that helped me on my way. But you know, like Howard was saying how he kind of stumbled upon church — or, church — theater, I had the same thing. I stumbled upon computers. I got accepted to RIT for computer science.
EVANS: I mean, I know this is mostly for Rush-Henrietta School District, but was there room for college professors?
RESSEL: We really didn't talk about that. I guess if somebody came to that, some committee could discuss that.
SCHULTZ: I plan to push that boundary, because there's two professors who were at RIT but who were residents of the Town of Henrietta, so I intend to do something to memorialize those two individuals.
ALL: Take care. Thanks. Take care.
