Elementary students create a historical calendar

Whitehall Mansion, Brockport Training School and the Brockport Yacht Club are just some of the features in the 2004 Brockport Historical Calendar, created by elementary students. For the fifth consecutive year, students from Mary Wanzer's and Eileen Jungbluth's fourth and fifth-grade classes at the Fred W. Hill Elementary School put together a calendar about local history.

Students were responsible for the researching, writing and editing for the calendar. They visited several local historical sites including the Hill Street Cemetery, Morgan Manning House, and the Emily Knapp Museum. At most of these sites, students selected pictures to include in this year's calendar. Bill Andrews, a former historian from Brockport's Emily Knapp Museum, also allowed students to borrow some photographs from his collection. The students then scanned these photos on a school computer to generate the pictures seen in the calendar. They researched the history related to the photographs at the Seymour Library. Although the researching was a difficult task, many students agree that it was their favorite part of the project.

"The students not only learned a great deal about Brockport's history, they also learned that doing a big project requires hard work," said Wanzer. The 2004 Brockport Historical Calendar is $5 and is currently available at The UPS Store, the Mill House Restaurant, Clarkson Town Hall and the Fred W. Hill Elementary School.

Proceeds from the sales will benefit the restoration project at Clarkson Academy.