Around Westhampton

By Owen Boss
Staff Writer

Young students share day with their grandparents

As a way of advancing the local Parent Teacher Organization’s goal of bringing more of the school’s children’s home lives into the classroom, students at Westhampton Elementary School had the opportunity to bring their grandparents to school for the first time last week. It was an experiment that school officials said turned out to be just as fun for the seniors as their grandchildren.

“One of the things the PTO wanted to do was support projects aimed at getting the community involved in our school, and fostering more home-to-school connections here,” Principal Deane Bates said.

The all-day event, which drew more than 100 grandparents to the Kings Highway elementary school, allowed grandparents to accompany students on their usual daily routine during the school day and have some fun with each grade’s prepared activities.

“Our sixth-graders had an interactive quiz with clickers that they played with their grandparents and some of our other students made pictures out of both of their handprints,” Bates said. “They all seemed very happy.”

Given the success of the school’s first Grandparent’s Day, Bates said he would definitely be open to having it become an annual event at Westhampton Elementary.
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New library taking shape

Town residents who have been eagerly watching the new public library take shape in recent months were happy to see the structure’s new cupola, built by a crew of local volunteers, firmly attached to the building’s roof last week.

According to Euthecia Hancewicz, president of the Friend’s of the Westhampton Library, the 6-by-6 foot cupola, which was built in the Northwest Road workshop of woodworker and construction artist Douglas Thayer, was installed early last week and was crafted to match the style of the original 1814 building.

“They did a ton of what is called dentil work and the cupola was designed to match exactly what is on the original parsonage building,” Hancewicz said.
“It’s up and it is looking good.”

Although much of the building’s roof has been completed, some of the structure is still covered only by tarps and Hancewicz said as work progresses over the winter, area residents will be working to come up with ideas for future programming.

“We’ve already held a couple of meetings to brainstorm ideas about some programs and events that can take place in and around the new library when it opens,” Hancewicz said.

Also in the works while construction wraps is a volunteer effort to transplant all of the books from the former library, located next to Town Hall, to its new location across the street.

“It will be something that will be done by volunteers, because that is how this project has come about and that is how Westhampton works,” Hancewicz said. “We just have to find a away to get a lot of people to help.”

Residents who want to volunteer for the book-move project can call the library at 527-5386 or attend the next Friend’s of the Library meeting.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com