Community Helpers Field Trip 2014

 Shutesbury Post Office - We met Frank and he showed us the Post Office boxes and the big safe where they keep the large inventory of stamps for sale. We also saw the loading zone and learned how they sort mail and packages for Diane to deliver. We even learned that you can mail things like chickens, bees and mufflers! We were even there when a resident came in to get help-- she explained to Frank that she dropped an envelope in the outdoor mail box the afternoon before but then realized later that evening that she forgot to write the address on the envelope! So Frank retrieved the mail from the outdoor box and found her letter; she added the street number and address and now her envelope will make it to the recipient in Vermont!

M.N. Spear Library - Mary Anne warmly greeted us at the town library. She explained that her job was to obtain and organize materials such as books and movies for patrons to borrow. We also talked about  how the library sponsors educational and fun events such as book groups, story hour and the summer reading program. Mary Anne also read us 3 wonderful stories (we especially loved the new Mo Willems book) and then provided us a lovely snack outdoors.

Shutesbury Town Hall - Leslie Bracebridge, the Town Clerk, met us at the door of Town Hall and ushered us downstairs for our mock Town Meeting. There were 3 children randomly chosen to act as the Select Board and the question put forth was, "Would you prefer a tire swing OR a regular swing behind Town Hall?" The children all took to the voting booths, made their selection, and then cast their ballots in the box to make it official. The tire swing won (no surprise to the teachers) with 13 votes; the regular swing received 10 votes. The teachers forgot to and expressed a late interest in voting but Leslie declared that it was too late and "the polls were closed."

 Shutesbury Police Department - Chief Harding told us that his main job was to help the people of Shutesbury and to keep them safe. He asked us to assist him in solving a "crime"-- a resident of Shutesbury discovered one morning that the tops of her tulips in her garden were all gone. And Chief Harding had a sample of the sorry stem that remained as evidence that he showed us. He also had a photograph of footprints that were found in the resident's garden. After piecing the clues together we collectively deduced that it was a deer that was responsible for the tulip theft. And we concluded that it would be difficult to deliver consequences to a deer, so Chief Harding did not take any deer to jail. :-)

Shutesbury Fire Department - We wrapped up our trip with Chief Tibbetts. He showed us his gear that he wears into a fire which included boots that were already attached to triple layer pants, a jacket, a head covering, a helmet and an oxygen tank. The kids asked some particularly great questions of Chief Tibbetts such as, "If you fall down into a hole, how do you get out?" and "What do you do if you are fighting fire and you get hungry or thirsty?" The Chief explained that they work in teams so your fellow fire fighter would help you get out of a hole if you fell in and might even relieve you from duty if you are in serious need of a snack or water break. We also determined, after Chief Tibbetts told us that his clothing would protect him up to 400 degrees, that he could go in an oven! But we all agreed that was a pretty silly idea.

 

We had an awesome and informative visit with our Community Helpers!