Schools
Hughes Gives Back for Big Anniversary
Middle school taking on 30 Projects to Celebrate 30 Years.
This year is 30th anniversary. The first class moved into the new building, named for poet Langston Hughes, after a few months on a split schedule at in 1980.
For some organizations, that milestone would be celebrated with a party. At Langston Hughes, they’ve approached their big year a little differently.
“We decided to give back to the community that has supported us for so many years,” said principal Aimee Monticchio.
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PTA vice president Mary York said public service projects seemed to be the right thing to do.
“It didn’t feel right to have a party," she said. "We asked ‘how can we give back?’ We decided to say thank you through good deeds."
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The PTA brainstormed 30 ways to give back to the community. Nearly two-thirds of these projects are completed.
“It’s likely we’ll go over 30,” said York. “We are having a lot of fun with each of these events.”
Some of the recent projects: a group of Langston Hughes students created valentines for each of the 103 Fairfax County police officers at the created an Hughes anniversary banner that was carried in both the homecoming parade and the holiday parade at
Veterans at a Veterans Day event at were presented with handmade thank you cards. The orchestra has played for a year-end party at Northrup-Grumman, one of the school’s business partners. They also performed a holiday program for the seniors at Tall Oaks Assisted Living. They have wrapped gifts for the children at and held clothing and food drives for . Students also read books at for last week's Read Across America Day.
“As much as we can, we want people to see our students out in the community, serving the community,” said Monticchio.
In the next few weeks, students will be planting trees and flowers around the school and helping the celebrate Earth Day. They are preparing “Books of Hope” to share with school children in Uganda.
By the end of the year, they hope to find the first time capsule buried at Hughes in 1981 and leave one of their own for the next generation to discover.
