Teachers, students and neighbors will gather at Friday evening for the Tenth Annual Leslie E. Buck Family Fun Walk.
“It’s a wonderful gathering,” said Leslie E. Buck Memorial Fund member Jessie Kam. “Many teachers, parents and students come. It’s a great way to connect to people you don’t see on a daily basis.”
It will also be the last Family Fun Walk.
“Ten is a very good number to end on,” said Leslie E. Buck Memorial Fund member Anna Greene on the fund’s decision to end the annual walk. “It’s a milestone, we’re going to try different fundraisers we may go back to the walk.”
Shortly after teacher Leslie Buck died ten years ago her friends, fellow teachers and students created the Leslie E. Buck Memorial Fund as a way to create a legacy for her by promoting literature for children. The is the memorial fund's biggest fundraiser.
And this year promises to be no exception. Ellen Gilbert is bringing members of the chorus to sing while people gather before the walk, and students from Mystic Middle School will offer face painting and tattoos. Following the two-mile walk through the village there will be a reception at . Mystic Middle School students Haley Duba (front) and Angela Thompson (back) designed this year's t-shirts.
“It’s the last year of the walk, not the fund,” Greene said.
The fund with it’s database of hundreds of donors will continue their programs in the schools such as the Look It Up program that with the Stonington Free Library, Mystic and Stonington Rotaries takes third graders from Deans Mill and to the library for a tour, library cards and dictionary. The scholarships for seniors will continue and the fund hopes that students and teachers will continue to generate ideas for ways they would like the fund to help.
“It’s amazing that it keeps going,” Greene said.
Kam said the smartboards the fund donated to Mystic Middle School and Deans Mill School were a technology grant the schools requested. had requested kindles in an earlier year.
“It’s another hook to get them to read,” Kam said.
The Tenth Annual Leslie E. Buck takes place May 4 at 6 p.m. at Library Square in Stonington Borough. Registration begins at 5:30 p.m., or you may register in advance. Following the two-mile stroll through Stonington Village light refreshments will be served at St. Mary’s Church. For more information contact Anna Greene at 860-599-3445 or email lesliebuckfund@aol.com.
