LYNN — Sisson Elementary School’s leadership group, the SOARing Eagles (Safe, Outstanding, Accountable, and Respectful), spent time building benches to provide a comfortable space for people to sit amid the new Pickering Middle School construction.
“We’re called the SOARing Eagles, and we’re an afterschool program that tries to help the school and the city around us,” fifth grader Anabelle Dulong said.
The group was formed in 2024, and Dulong was a part of it from the beginning. Fifth grader Landon Alexander joined the group this year. He and Anabelle were the ones who thought of the bench project.
When asked what made her join the group, Anabelle said, “I really liked how you could be a part of a leadership program, and it made me really excited to join last year.”
Landon agreed, saying, “I wanted to join because, one, it’s a leadership program. It’s for leaders in the school, and two, I found out that we were trying to help out a lot of people in the city and the school by just doing positive things.”
Anabelle saw how the city meant a lot to the people who lived there, and the SOARing Eagles wanted to be the people who helped out the community with food drives and things like kindness kits for a hospital.
Anabelle and Landon also explained how the SOARing Eagles managed to make some money by selling Boo Grams at school.
“We earned so much money by doing a thing for the school called Boo Grams. They were a dollar, and they were lollipops for Halloween. We made over $700, so she asked us what we wanted to do. Our teacher (Stephanie Geller) gave us a vote, and I really wanted to do benches because these fences were not comfortable to sit on,” Anabelle said.
The fences referenced are cement barriers with fencing meant to separate the school yard from the Pickering construction site.
“They’re so broken because so many kids have tried to break them to make them comfortable,” she said.
Landon also pointed out the damage in the fence showing a specific area where it was clear it had been messed with.
“You can see right there, there’s one where they pushed the fence back so you can sit down,” he said.
Anabelle and Landon said the benches were for everybody in the school.
“We’re making five of them. One of them is for the lunch aides up there. The lunch aides just sit on that cinderblock, so we have to give them a nice place to sit down,” Landon said.
Another person helping out with the project is Dan Dulong, Anabelle’s father. He helped the kids build the benches and make sure everyone was safe with the power tools.
When asked what the next step was for the benches, both kids said they would be painted.
“We were talking about painting our handprints on them and waiting for them to dry and then signing our names on them,” she said. “My dad got a little plaque, and it says Sisson SOARing Eagles Class of 2025.”
The kids also mentioned that Home Depot donated all the supplies.
Stephanie Geller, a fifth-grade teacher and head of the SOARing Eagles, also spoke on the project.
“Anabelle and Landon presented this idea to the club, and it was one of many presentations that were presented to the club. We voted and decided that we were going to do this as one of our projects,” Geller said.
She continued, saying that the club has done projects in the past, including donating to the Lynn Community Fridge, donating supplies to the REAL Program and Girls Inc., and they’re also having a talent show next month as a charity event.
“So they took their presentation that was approved by the group and they brought it to Home Depot with Mr. Dulong, Anabelle’s father, and Home Depot gave us all of these supplies for free,” she said.
Geller also mentioned that the plaque was donated for free as well by Harrington’s Trophies and Awards. She continued that Anabelle’s father got involved when his daughter convinced him to join in the project.
“He’s a firefighter in the city and he’s just a really good guy. We have really good parents who are with our school all the time who are really good community members who we can call upon,” she said.
With the benches in place the SOARing Eagles can now look out into the recess yard everyday and see the impact they help make within their community.
