Celebration honors four special 'elders' at Forest School
A celebration Feb. 4 honored four special "elders" at Forest Elementary School in Crystal who allowed their life stories to be examples of the community's diverse fabric.
The "Elders' Wisdom, Children's Song" program was the culmination of troubadour Larry Long's work with fourth-graders at the school. He helped students collectively gather recitations honoring the life stories of the four honorees, and then collectively write songs about them.
"It's one of the most beautiful and meaningful things we've ever done," Principal Connie Grumdahl said.
Long, executive director of Community Celebration of Place, has worked in partnership with the West Metro Education Program (WMEP) to provide the program for schools that are members of the consortium.
Forest School honorees included:
- Debby Haryati, 35, of New Hope, who came to the United States from Indonesia. Her son, Paul Saleh, is a fourth-grader in Angela Husom's class, which sang "You Can Have Much More Love For Your Family" to honor Haryati.
- Joaquin Martinez, 30, of Crystal, who came to the U.S. from Mexico. His daughter, Adriana, is a fourth-grader in Nancy Meyerhoff's class, which sang "Hola! Hola! Family is Love" to honor Martinez.
- Janet Ramos, 60, of Plymouth, a Native American who was born on the Red Lake Reservation. Her granddaughter, Kendrianna Graves, is a fourth-grader in Nancy Thill's class, which sang "Proud to be Ojibwe" to honor Ramos.
- Suleman Tahtamoni, 46, of Crystal, who came to the United States from Jordan. He and his family were Palestinian refugees. His son, Mohammad, is a fourth-grader in Norma Terhaar's class, which sang "To Live As Family" to honor Tahtamoni.
Mark Hoornbeek, social worker at Forest, said the school originally connected with the elders by sending home a request form with students, asking for volunteers who would agree to be honored elders.
"We were looking for intergenerational and multicultural elders," Hoornbeek said. "We are very pleased and honored by the elders' willingness to come tell their stories. These are the people in our community. They are us."
Once the four elders had been selected, each honoree met with one of the fourth-grade classes to tell his or her life's story. Nadine Sehnert, program director of Community Celebration of Place, took notes and transcribed them. Then each of the fourth-grade classes worked together to create themes for one honoree and worked with Long to create a song based on the honoree's life story.
Janine Gagnon, Forest's music specialist, helped the students learn the words and music for the songs and then add movement.
As Long played the guitar at the Feb. 4 celebration, Gagnon, directed the fourth-graders' choral tributes to each guest.
A Smithsonian Folkways recording artist, Long has appeared at festivals, concerts and events throughout the United States and internationally. He has received the Bush Artists Fellowship, the Pope John XXIII award and In The Spirit of Crazy Horse Award for his work.
From the MN Sun:
www.mnsun.com/articles/2010/02/18/crystal/news/p218elders_cr.txt