On October 30th and 31st, one side of Number One pond was brightly lit with over 1/4th of a mile of lights and 1,200 lanterns hand made by Sanford students, staff and business owners. The Lanterns of Light project was planned, organized, and executed by Heidi Barker and the Sanford JMG students.
"We wanted to spread some positivity. There's too much fighting right now." - Sanford JMG Student
"We wanted to bring everyone together again." -- Liam B.
"We are Sanford Strong, even with everything going on right now." -- Dylan S.
Seeing so many community members come out to see the lanterns over the weekend made the students feel special, and important.
THANK YOU to everyone who helped us with this project!
Amy Legere and Lori Williams from the Sanford Backpack Program
Anne-Marie Mastraccio for volunteering her time during the community lantern making night and helping to deliver lantern "kits" to multiple schools.
Lucas Lanigan and his crew for the numerous hours he spent hanging lights and lanterns!!
Ayn and Jeff Hanselmann for the donuts and cider, and allowing us to use Frannie's during our lantern making community night!
Chip Schrader for allowing us to use Goodall Library on our community lantern making night.
Emily Sheffield, Lori Hagerty, and Heidi Barker for volunteering their time during the community lantern making night!
Gaye Letendre and Kash for Kans for donating ALL of the bottles needed for our lanterns!
Heidi Barker for basically everything, including the original idea!
Helen Hajny for volunteering during the community lantern making night and allowing us to use Get Fired Up as a place to make lanterns!
Maria Curit from PHC/SMHC for volunteering to help with hanging lanterns ona very cold Friday!
Mr. Nelson and Mrs. Lydon for saying yes!
Officer Jourdain and the Sanford PD for keeping our lanterns safe and supervised!
Sarah Schnell for filming our entire journey from start to finish!
Shawn Sullivan for writing an amazing article!
Wanda Parent and Stuff the Bus for donating all of the glue and tissue paper for our lanterns!
We couldn't have done it without all of you! On behalf of the JMG students, and Sanford, THANK YOU!