Thornton Academy Postscripts Alumni Magazine Winter 2008 | Página 5

www.thorntonacademy.org

National Junior Honor Society Established
at Thornton Academy’s Middle School
NHS, NJHS will work together this spring
as the new group gets its jump start
A new chapter of the National Junior Honor Society has been established at Thornton Academy Middle School. There are 20 members
of NJHS at Thornton. Students in the 7th or 8th grade are eligible for
induction into the group.
“This is a great addition to our school and helps us encourage
kids to treat their peers well, to act as a positive role model, and to
do good in the community,” says teacher and NJHS advisor Tiffany
Regan ‘00.
The National Junior Honor Society was founded in 1929. It strives
to recognize and encourage academic achievement among middle
school students while also developing other characteristics essential
to citizens in a democracy, such as scholarship, character, service and
leadership.
A committee of teachers and a guidance counselor selected the
NJHS members at Thornton Academy. Each student is expected to

continue their high academic achievement and to participate in volunteer work at Thornton and within the Saco community to remain in
the group.
The following students were inducted into NJHS in January: Joanna Abaroa, Alyssa Ames, Kaitlyn Couture, Jenna Hansen, Gregory
Hite, Shayleen Letellier, Anna Madore, Brian Moskowitz, Vanessa
Nason, Joshua Nault, Caleb Paul, Elizabeth Pelletier, Kristen Philbrick,
Taylor Raine, Amber Reynolds, Emily Richard, Christopher Roberts,
Jakob Sawyer, Seth Woodsum and Amelia Worthing.
Carol Smith Taranko ‘92, advisor for Thornton’s active National
Honor Society chapter at the High School, said the group is hosting a
retreat for Middle School students. The day will be dedicated to learning about community service, team building and leadership training.
The two groups are likely to work collaboratively this spring.
NHS is engaged in all kinds of volunteer projects throughout the
year, working with groups such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of America,
STRIVES, the Bon Appetit Soup Kitchen and the Southern Maine Area
Agency on Aging.

93.1 FM Radio Station Soucy Receives Friend
Honors Teacher
of York County’s
Elizabeth Wrigley
Children Award
Radio DJs visited the Middle School and
hosted pizza party to honor Wrigley
Thornton Academy
Middle School’s Elizabeth Wrigley has been
recognized as an outstanding teacher by the
Portland-based 93.1 FM.
In January, the Coast
Morning Show selected
two teachers each week
who are special to students, families and communities. Sixth-grade
student Hannah Wuerthner nominated her
teacher for the award.
Radio show hosts
Tim Wright and Eva Matteson visited TA on January 8. They interviewed
Wrigley and her students. They also brought
pizza from Ricetta’s Brick Oven
Pizzeria for Wrigley’s class.
The two DJs visited campus
during Teacher Appreciation
Month. Each week they chose a
different educator in Maine to
honor who truly makes a difference for children, families and
the communities where they
work.
Wuerthner told 93.1 that she’s
always happy to go to school
and see Mrs. Wrigley. She wrote a
letter to the radio station saying, “My teacher deserves to be
recognized because she helps us
learn in a fun way... Mrs. Wrigley
is very energetic and enthusiastic.
She always comes in with a smile
on her face.”
The letter went on to note
Wrigley’s creativity in the classroom and her ability to cheer
kids up when they are having a

Elizabeth Wrigley

bad day.
Other students in the class
agreed that their teacher is pretty
great – not in the least because
she taught them about the water
cycle through song.
“You can’t have a great teacher without a great group of kids,”
Wrigley told the radio hosts during their visit. She added that she
believes the award should be for
the class as a whole and not for
her exclusively.
“We have a good time here
every single day,” she explained.
Associate Headmaster Stephen Marquis said this it was a
“wonderful honor” for Wrigley
and for Thornton Academy as
a whole for the 93.1 FM crew to
visit our campus.
Interviews of Wrigley and her
students were aired on the radio
station on Jan. 10.

The Child Abuse Prevention
Council of York County has honored
Thornton Academy Middle School
Guidance Counselor Kristie Soucy
with its Friend of York County’s
Children Award.

Education Coordinator Sarah
Dore-Fairfield said that the Kennebunkport-based nonprofit hands
out the award annually to recognize
the work that educators do to make
a difference in the lives of young
people.

“Kristie just absolutely goes
above and beyond in her job, not
just with the work we have done
in collaboration with one another
but with the kids at her school each
day,” Dore-Fairfield explained.

Soucy worked with the Child
Abuse Prevention Council twice
last year. She helped arrange for
seventh-grade students in 2006-07
to spend a day and night with Baby
Think It Over, a life-size baby doll
with realistic computerized responses. The initiative—which is being
repeated this school year—helps
young people understand the
pressures and responsibilities
involved with parenthood.

Last March, Soucy helped
organize an event with the Council called Project Pinwheel. This
gave students in grades 6, 7 and
8 the chance to create pinwheels
that each represented a case of
child abuse reported last year
in York County. The pinwheels
were then sent to Augusta, along
with others from each county in
Maine, as a display of statewide
reported abuse.

Associate Headmaster Stephen Marquis said that Thornton
Academy benefits greatly by having