The Boston Sunday Globe
Teaching Tools:
Giving Youth a Foundation for Leadership;
By Marie C. Franklin
September 13, 1998
If you looked closely at the photograph on the front page of the Aug. 29 Boston
Globe - the one of President Clinton holding hands with civil-rights activists
at a Martha's Vineyard ceremony celebrating the 35th anniversary of Martin
Luther King's 1963 march on Washington - you can barely see Marianne Larned's
right hand and left forearm.
But make no mistake. The limb is hers, clasped tightly to the hand of
Democratic US Representative John Lewis of Georgia, a colleague and friend of
King.
"I suppose, that as a human being, to see that my hand was the only thing
to make the picture, I said, 'Hey, wait a minute, there's no one in that
picture from the Vineyard, they are missing half of the story,' " Larned
said recently in her Vineyard Haven office, where she is the director of Stone
Soup Foundation, the nonprofit education foundation that organized the event.
"Honestly, we didn't care, because it was a magnificent day and there was
a strong message of hope, with children singing 'We Shall Overcome,' a young
boy delivering a speech he wrote as if he were Martin Luther King, the
president and John Lewis speaking and standing together on stage," Larned
said.
"It was a powerful reminder of the power of one person to make a
difference and change the future," said Vineyard resident Randy Vega.
Stone Soup Foundation is committed to empowering young people to become leaders
in building a better world, according to Larned. Its first project is a
curriculum based on "Stone Soup for the World: Life-Changing Stories of
Kindness and Courageous Acts of Service," a collection of 100 stories of
ordinary and extraordinary people who overcame obstacles and went on to help
change the world.
The book, which was edited by Larned, includes stories about Mother Teresa,
Nelson Mandela, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Bette Midler, and Marian
Wright Edelman. A dozen stories highlight the work of local residents,
including Boston street artist Sidewalk Sam, the founders of City Year, and
Aaron Feuerstein, owner of Malden Mills.
Earlier this year, when a story on the foundation appeared in the Cape Cod
Times, Larned said she was inundated with phone calls from teachers. "Many
of them wanted to see the book and said there was nothing like this in the
schools," she said.
Diane Troy, a teacher at St. Francis Xavier Prep School in Hyannis, wrote a
letter to Larned suggesting she and Larned collaborate on a teacher's guide to
accompany the book. That guide, which has been reviewed by other educators and
school librarians, will be available in
October.
"The teacher's guide pulls out the values and the lessons learned from the
100 stories and gives field trips, classroom activities, and teaching tools to
use the stories to teach literature, science, social studies," Larned
said.
The book, which is carried by Scholastic Books and is avail-able in bookstores,
is also filled with teaching and community ser-vice ideas. For example, at the
conclusion of a story about a young girl from New Orleans who started a food
drive for hungry children, readers are encouraged to organize a food or
clothing drive in their communities.
Last week, at an event in Chatham, Larned reached out to Cape Cod educators to
introduce the foundation's back-to-school campaign. Teachers, principals, and
school librarians attended, as did Chatham school Superintendent Vida Gavin.
"All you need is a couple of people in the schools like Marianne Larned
imparting the message that it's important for young people to learn that they
have to give back to their communities," Gavin said. "All the better
if it's a classroom teacher who can be a very powerful role model."
But back to August on the Vineyard and the other part of Larned's story.
Planned as a healing ceremony for Vineyard residents troubled by the July,
drug-related death of a young, black man who lived on the island, the August
event turned into something more. First, Larned realized that the planned date,
Aug. 28, was the anniversary 35th of King's march on Washington. Then, she
invited President Clinton, who was vacationing on the Vineyard, to attend. Soon
after, Larned learned that John Lewis - the only major speaker from the
Washington march who is still alive - was on the island to promote his new book
about the Civil Rights Movement. Larned invited Lewis.
"A few days before the event, we got word that it was likely they would
both attend," she said. And because presidential politics supersedes
grass-roots organizations like Stone Soup Found-ation, what started out as a
small gathering of year-rounders turned into a large media event. More than
2,000 people attended the ser-vice, although only 300 fit inside the Union
Chapel in Oak Bluffs. Many of the people listening tothe ceremony from outside
were Tourists hoping to glimpse the president.
What came as a surprise, however, is that the president used his time at the
podium not only to recall King's work, but also to ask for forgiveness for his
marital infidelity. "All of you know I'm having to become quite an expert
in this business of asking for forgiveness," Clinton said.
"It is important that we are able to forgive those we believe have wronged
us, even as we ask forgiveness from people we have wronged," he said.
That night, national news broadcasts led with a story on Clinton's talk. Across
the country, newspapers carried the photograph of the president singing
"We shall overcome," arms crossed and holding hands with Lewis and
Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree. At the core of the coverage was
the president's apology. And, cut out of the news and cropped from the
photograph, was Marianne Larned and Stone Soup Foundation.
No matter, said Larned. "What started out as a healing for our Vineyard
community became a healing moment for our country with president Clinton's
moving speech," said Larned, a former teacher. "Our country needed to
hear what he had to say. Learning forgiveness is a great lesson that we all
need and that we need to teach our children.
"Our hope is that through the back-to-school campaign we will pass on the
dream and legacy of service to as many children as possible and inspire people
to build a better world - with and for our children," Larned said.
Readers interested in more information on Stone Soup Foundation and its work,
or in receiving a copy of the Leader's guide to "Stone Soup for the
World" stories, should write to Stone Soup Foundation, PO Box 4301,
Vineyard Haven, MA 02568, call 508-696-8514
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