On
Wednesday morning, Manchester School presented their Community Day projects.
All the children at Windham’s Manchester School worked very hard this year to
improve and do great things for the community, the staff said. To start off the
celebration, the children learned about the history of Manchester School. It
was named after Stephen Manchester and two of Stephen’s descendants were in
attendance to explain the history to the students. They learned about several
of the landmarks in Windham that have been around since the days of Stephen
Manchester. After a brief history of the school’s founder, the first principal
of Manchester School, former Senator Bill Diamond, spoke. “What makes you
proud?” Diamond asked the students. Many little hands shot up. Grades were one
of the many answers the kids had. Diamond continued by telling the packed
gymnasium what the school was like forty years ago when he was principal and
how back then they were considered “pioneers” for how they conducted classes as
there were no walls inside the school at that time.
After
listening patiently and intently to the speakers, it was the children’s turn as
they treated the parents, teachers and community members to their school song
led by Charles Oehrtmann. Art teacher Angelika Blanchard and her students spoke
before the presentation of the donations. The first donation was made by Deb
Luce’s fourth grade class for $515 to the wounded Warriors project. All the
children in her class worked very hard to raise the money for this great cause,
she said.
The
second donation was made by Donna Morton and Adam Beals’ classes to the Windham
Land Trust. They raised $450. Stacey Sanborn then spoke about their beautiful
garden shed which was painted with butterflies and flowers by Blanchard and her
Reach art students. 
The
American Legion was the beneficiary of the third donation raised by Sabrina
Nickerson’s class. They raised $452 which was presented to Karle Learner and
Mel Greenier of American Legion Post 148.
The
fourth donation went to the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals
(MSSPA). The $262 raised by Mrs. Fischer’s class which was presented to a
member of the MSSPA and Bill Diamond, who is on the board of directors and the
current treasurer. 
The
final donation was raised through last Friday’s talent show which netted $1,300
and was presented to Officer Matt Cyr for the DARE program and another $300
from DARE bracelet sales, which Officer Cyr said would go to help fund the
wonderful work that the DARE program does.
A
surprise announcement was made at the assembly that teacher Donna Morton, who
has been with the Windham School Department for 37 years, has chosen to retire
at the end of this school year. She looks forward to pursuing many hobbies and
interests including painting, reading and travelling. The American Legion
announced to the group that they have selected Donna Morton as this year’s
teacher of the year. With all the wonderful things she does for the school, she
will be dearly missed, the staff said.
The
ceremony was concluded with the children singing the song “Manchester School”
written by Mike Nobel, led by Oehrtmann and a slide show of the children at
Manchester School throughout the year dancing to the song “Happy” put together
by Morton. After the presentations and the ceremony, people were able to walk
around the gym and look at many of the projects the students had worked on
throughout the year. The projects were on a variety of topics to benefit the
community, including quilts for Ronald McDonald House and fundraising still
happening for MSSPA. Manchester School would like to thank several people
including Blossoms for providing them with all the flowers, the kitchen and custodial
crew, Oehrtmann for the music as well as the Community Day committee made up of
Morton, Blanchard, Sanborn and Melissa Azzaratta along with all students, staff
and volunteers that helped make Manchester Community Day such a positive
experience for everyone.
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