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10/18/2017 08:15 AMWhat goes with a birthday party? Presents, for one. But at her 13th birthday party, Emi Bisson had an unusual request. Instead of something for her, she asked her friends to make a contribution to Kirtland Commons, the elderly and disabled affordable housing complex in Deep River.
“I wanted to do something to spread happiness,” she said.
Along with her brother Jackson, 14, and two friends, Abby Amara, 13, and Owen Palagonia, 14, Emi had volunteered at Kirtland Commons last Halloween and last Christmas and are planning to volunteer again this Halloween. Emi Bisson and Amara are 8th graders at John Winthrop Middle School. Jackson Bisson and Palagonia are freshmen at Valley Regional High School.
“We were passing around food, making them laugh,” Emi Bisson said.
“We walked around, helping, making people happy,” Amara added
The residents reciprocated with humor of their own.
“Some of those dudes, they said really funny things. They made me laugh,” Palagonia said.
Joann Hourigan, director of the Deep River Housing Authority, explained that for a time last year as the teens were passing out Halloween candy, they pretended to be zombies. In approved zombie fashion, they remained mute.
“The residents tried everything to get them to say something, to make them laugh and it was really funny for everybody,” Hourigan said.
Palagonia got involved in visiting Kirtland through friendship with Jackson Bisson.
“I heard Jackson was doing it, and I need volunteer hours,” he said.
Kathleen Bisson, Emi and Jackson’s mother, noted that volunteering is one of the criteria, along with grades, for membership in the school’s branch of the National Honor Society.
“We look for a pattern of service, not for one-time involvements,” said Valley Regional teacher Donald Perreault, faculty advisor to the school’s chapter of the National Honor Society.
Perreault noted that volunteering as middle school students is not considered in admission to the high school honor society.
Emi Bisson plays lacrosse, runs cross country, and takes dancing lessons. For the last three years, she has helped with lessons for under-5 students at her dancing school.
Amara plays field hockey, softball and is one of eight student leaders, a designation voted by classmates. A student leader, she explains, is someone who tries to model good school citizenship—“Instead of talking during reading, we read.”
Jackson Bisson is president of the freshman class at Valley Regional. A soccer player, he is a volunteer student leader at Top Soccer, a program for young athletes with disabilities.
Emi and Jackson Bisson, along with Amara, recently volunteered at the Oct. 1 fundraiser ride to benefit Bikes For Kids, the local charity that has given more than 40,000 bikes to youngsters since its founding in 2002.
Emi Bisson has another project at the moment: making paracord bracelets to give to active duty soldiers. Paracord, or parachute cord, is thin, strong, stretchable fiber. Strands of the cord are woven together to create bracelets that can stretch to more than seven feet and support more than 750 pounds for emergency use. When Emi Bisson and those classmates she has recruited finish the bracelets, they send them to Operation Gratitude, a charity that distributes them to military personnel. Bisson said her mother initially found out about the Operation Gratitude program.
Residents at Kirtland Commons are looking forward to having the four teens return this year on Halloween. “They loved having the kids here. It was great, a very nice mix and they can’t wait to see them again,” Hourigan said.