NSTOY Teacher Showcase
Norm Conard -- UPDATE!--
For those of you keeping up with the story of Irena Sendler, Norm Conard, (TOY, KS 1992), A website www.irenasendler.org contains upcoming events and the latest information on the project. Hallmark Hall of Fame recently aired a movie, The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, based on the project by Norm's students about Irena's life. Above is a picture from the world premiere in Fort Scott, KS. Below is a photo of Megan Felt (star of Life in a Jar and is a director at the Lowell Milken Center in Fort Scott), along with Megan is television and movie actress, Anna Paquin. Ms. Paquin plays Irena in the Hallmark movie, Megan has played Irena Sendler for a decade in the Life in a Jar play. Several books are being written about the Life in a Jar project and Ms. Sendler. The Life in a Jar play is still performing all over the world and will be in PA, WI, IN, MO, KS and FL over the next year.
Norm established the Lowell Milken Education Center in the summer of 2007. The Center is separate from the Milken Family Foundation and is the only center of its kind in the country. The Center develops projects concerning unsung heroes in history, with teachers and students. The Center promotes the mission of teaching respect and understanding throughout America and around the world through educational projects that feature unsung heroes as role models to "repair the world." More information on the Center can be seen on their website at www.lowellmilkencenter.org. Projects from the Center have been recognized a number of times on a national level. Pictured below is Program Director Megan Felt being interviewed while discussing the Center's exhibit area.
Lowell Milken Education Center
4 South Main
Fort Scott, KS 66701
www.lowellmilkencenter.org
Life in a Jar Foundation
610 Meadow Lane
Fort Scott, KS 66701
www.irenasendler.org
The Lowell Milken Center and Life in a Jar Foundation are 509 and 501 (c) 3 non-profit institutions.
Original Story
In the fall of 1999, Mr. Conard encouraged four students to work on a year long National History Day project which would among other things; extend the boundaries of the classroom to families in the community, contribute to history learning, teach respect and tolerance, and meet our classroom motto, "He who changes one person, changes the world entire".
Three ninth grade girls, Megan Stewart, Elizabeth Cambers, and Jessica Shelton, and an eleventh grade girl, Sabrina Coons, accepted the challenge and decided to enter their project in the National History Day program. Mr. Conard showed them a short clipping from a March 1994 issue of News and World Report, which said, 'Irena Sendler saved 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942-43'. He told the girls the article might be a typographical error, since he had not heard of this woman or story. The students began their research and looked for primary and secondary sources throughout the year.
They found that Irena Sendler, as a non-Jewish social worker, had gone into the Warsaw Ghetto, talked Jewish parents and grand parents out of their children, rightly saying that all were going to die in the Ghetto or in death camps, taking the children past the Nazi guards (in body bags, saying they were ill, or using one of the many means of escape from the Ghetto-the old courthouse for example), and then adopting them into the homes of Polish families or hiding them in convents and orphanages. She made lists of the children's real names and put the lists in jars, then buried the jars in a garden, so that someday she could dig up the jars and find the children to tell them of their real identify.
The Nazi's captured her and she was beaten severely, but the Polish underground bribed a guard to release her, and she entered into hiding. The students wrote a performance (Life in a Jar) in which they portrayed the life of Irena Sendler. They have performed this program for numerous clubs and civic groups in the community, around the state of Kansas, all over the U.S. and in Europe (202 presentations as of November 2006). The community of Uniontown has little diversity and no Jewish students in the school district. The community was inspired by the project and sponsored an Irena Sendler Day. The students began to search for the final resting place of Irena and discovered she was still alive and living in Warsaw, Poland.
From that time on they would take a jar to every performance and collect fund for Irena and other Polish rescuers. (They call their performance, "Life in a Jar") The significance of this project really started to grow with many numerous contacts. These contacts assisted the girls in sending the funds to Poland for the care of Irena and of other rescuers. The girls wrote Irena and she wrote and continues to write deeply meaningful letters to them, with such comments as, "your performance and work is continuing the effort I started over fifty years ago, you are my dearly beloved girls."
They discovered a Polish student, Anna Karasinska, at a local college and she began to translate for them. They made a collection of the letters and have shared these documents with universities, historical societies, and the Chicago and New York City Jewish Foundations for the Righteous. Their cause for Irena Sendler became a national cause; they had rediscovered this courageous woman. The girls appeared on C-SPAN, National Public Radio, CBS, CNN and in numerous newspaper articles, and magazine articles, such Ladies Home Journal. They were invited to perform in Washington, D.C. and before a Jewish foundation in New York City. They have become knowledgeable on subjects such as the Holocaust, World War II, and the Polish Underground. At least five colleges have been using their letters from Irena and their project information in their curriculum.
Great emotion pours out of the audience during their presentation. They have literally taken our class motto and brought it to life. They regularly write on their homework papers such notes as, "I'm changing the world" and "Irena's story must be told". The three girls had all experienced great emotional situations in life, as had later members of the project. Megan's (Megan's role is that of a Mrs. Rosner, who surrenders her children) mother was forty and was seriously ill with cancer, she passed away in June of this year. Sabrina was a great choice, even though she didn't know it at the time. Sabrina discovered during the research that her great-grandmother was Jewish and had been in a death camp, but survived.
The four students continued to dream of visiting Warsaw, interviewing Irena, surviving children, and others connected to this story. In January of 2001 they performed (and added a fourth member) before a large school district in a city about 100 miles from our school. A Jewish educator and businessman saw the performance and asked to have lunch with us that day. He told the girls he would raise the money and send them to Warsaw, if they would go that spring (Irena was 91 and in poor health) and bring back her story. The man raised the money in twenty-four hours.
On May 22, 2001, Mr. Conard traveled with four students, several parents (Bill and Phyllis Cambers, Debra Stewart and Bonnie George), plus his wife Karen, to Warsaw, Poland. They spent time with Irena Sendler and then extended the boundaries of the classroom to the world. The Polish organization for the Children of the Holocaust arranged a meeting between the rescuers and the children saved, this was the first such meeting in many years. They also met a famous Polish poet who was saved by Irena, and an author of a well known memoir of the Holocaust who called the students rescuers of the rescuer; The Polish press made this story international news. Irena's story was finally reaching others. The students were called "rescuer's, rescuers of Irena's story." by one of the children Irena saved.
The group met Elzbieta Ficowska and heard her beautiful story of being rescued by Irena at the age of 5 months, carried out in a carpenter's box. A great circle of Polish friends have aided the project in many ways.
In 2002 the founders of the project and new students traveled to Poland with Mr. Conard. They interviewed 24 people connected to Irena and her story, plus visited with Irena on several occasions. They also visited Treblinka and retraced Irena's steps in the Warsaw Ghetto. The story of Irena Sendler continues to expand, continues to inspire. Irena had made false documents for people in the Warsaw area from 1939 to 1942, helping save many, BEFORE she joined the underground Zegota and started saving children. In fact, Irena's life has been one of standing up for others. Her father was an inspiration for serving the world. Irena wants us to mention that ten others were under her guidance in saving children from the Ghetto, and a number of others were helping outside the Ghetto.
With this project the students (sixteen are now working on the project-see the Sendler family page--including Travis Stewart, and Jaime Walker, who is now portraying Mrs. Rosner) are extending the classroom into the world community in many ways, such as; publishing the interviews, performing before larger audiences, sharing letters of Irena with students and educators, (copies have been requested and sent to over 250 schools) and interviews with local and national press. The students have been contacted by many across the country about a possible book or screenplay. This project has created ongoing interactive communication with families in our community and communities across the country. This web site can also reach Mr. Conard and the students.
Many parents are involved in the project. A lady in the community has organized an Irena Sendler day, and another has organized an Irena Sendler week. The students continue to perform in front of local churches, civic groups and clubs. Life in a Jar has been presented in a number of states and on two summer tours. In November of 2004 and February of 2007, the Milken Family Foundation sponsored Life in a Jar in a series of presentations in Los Angeles. (Plus produced a DVD of the play-see link at the top of the web site.)
The Jewish community in Kansas City has reached out in a powerful way to involve itself with the project. The community as a whole has adopted the project, and this courageous woman, as a part of the family.
The story of Irena Sendler is spreading and spreading. U.S. News and Ladies Home Journal have come out with stories. The LHJ story was an eight page feature in the December 2003 issue, which told Irena's story and the story of the students. Television stations and newspapers continue to present numerous articles about the Kansas kids and the Polish heroine.
In 2005, the group again traveled to Poland for presentations of Life in a Jar. You may view the 'news section' of this web site for information on that trip. An international Irena Sendler award was started in 2006. The President of Poland is preparing a nomination of Irena for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Irena celebrated her 97th birthday in February of 2007, she is still in good health and continues to inspire many. Her family and many of her saved children continue to tell her story of courage and valor.
For more information visit: www.irenasendler.org.
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