Vacation Bible School Students Learn About
Lighthouses, Collect Money for Newport Harbor Light
Who looks at a lighthouse and doesn’t have some sort of
feeling of appreciation and intrigue for their stately presence along
our nation’s coastlines? Lighthouses may hearken back to a bygone era,
but their splendor and mystique continues to transcend time – even for
America’s youth who are growing up in the
Photo Courtesy Risa Hughes
Vacation Bible School Students
Paradise United Methodist Church
Mt. Pleasant, PA
fast-paced digital age of the 21st century.
More and more students around the country are learning about lighthouses –
many for the first time, and when they do, the fascination of the learning
experience has a lasting impact. This was certainly the case for
approximately 150 Vacation Bible School students from the Paradise United
Methodist Church in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania in July 2005.
The children, who ranged in age from 3 to 12, were taught about the role of
lighthouses in helping safeguard our nation’s waterways through a variety of
educational approaches. In order to make the learning
Photo by Ann-Marie Trapani
Newport Harbor Lighthouse
Newport, RI
experience more effective, teachers chose to focus on one
lighthouse for certain visual aspects of their program – in this case,
Newport Harbor Lighthouse in Rhode Island. “We had a picture of the
lighthouse so they could see what it looked like,” says Risa Hughes.
In addition, teachers utilized information gleaned from
the American Lighthouse Foundation web site and others during each
program, with the highlight being a historical story about lighthouses
that was read aloud to the class. “Every night they heard a story about
lighthouses from the
Lighthouse
Digest magazine,” said Hughes. “The children loved hearing about the
past history of lighthouses and how much the lights and their keepers were
needed to help save lives.”
History was not the only aspect of a lighthouse that the students explored
during Vacation Bible School. They also paralleled the symbolism associated
with lighthouses to their Bible studies. “The children learned how Jesus is
a constant light in their life,” said Hughes. “There are many Bible verses
with “light” in them, so we used one each night and our songs tied in too.”
Risa Hughes of Paradise United Methodist Church further commented that in
addition to the children incorporating the subject of lighthouses within
their Vacation Bible School classes, they
also wanted to enable the students to have the opportunity to help a
lighthouse with a donation. The lighthouse chosen was Newport Harbor
Light, under the care of the American Lighthouse Foundation. The
students collected $150 for the lighthouse, to be applied to the planned
$120,000 restoration of the 1842 beacon and historical
Photo by Bob Trapani, Jr.
“The “Lighthouse” Bible School
helped the children and all of the helpers to learn so
much more about the past and present of
lighthouses.” - Risa Hughes
icon of Newport
Harbor. “We would like to thank Bob Trapani, executive director of the
American Lighthouse Foundation, for all his assistance in helping us find a
lighthouse to donate to,” said Hughes.
