The Handshake Project began as an attempt by Merriam School fifth and sixth graders to get the Yankee and Red Sox players to shake hands at their 2005 home opening days in New York City and Boston. No one expected that the project would generate as much national (and even international) interest as it did.

Thanks to a $10,000 Sportsmanship Award from XM Satellite Radio, we are continuing the Handshake Project! The new fifth and sixth grade classes have joined together to take sportsmanship into the wider community as their service learning project. Sportsmanship will also be playing a key role throughout the school as part of our "Coummunity Building" theme for the year.

The rest of this page describes what we are doing for the project now, and you can find the history of the Project and see what the original classes produced for the Project below:

• The Story Behind the Handshake Project


• The Contents of the Handshake Project Presentation (slide show, letters, and posters)

Working on Sportsmanship at Merriam School — A Year Long Project

"I can't play being mad. I go out there and have fun. It's a game, and that's how I am going to treat it." – Ken Griffey, Jr.

This year Merriam School has worked to bring sportsmanship to the forefront through the motto of "It's How We Play the Game." The Sportsmanship Committee (Ed Kaufman, Beth Tafler, Tara Eddy, Rachel Russell, Mary Ann Brandt, and Sandra Wilensky) have met regularly to organize performances and events that support the theme of good sportsmanship in as many aspects of our school community as possible. We have drawn heavily from the XM Satellite $10,000 sportsmanship award to fund certain projects. Other projects reflect the generosity of spirit we as a community of children and adults share.

So far this year we have been able to do the following:

• Purchase books for classroom teachers to help us move the themes of community and sportsmanship into our life at school ’Äì starting right in daily classroom meetings. Other books that will extend attitudes about winning and losing have been discussed and suggested for classroom read-alouds and student book conference groups.


• Faculty Professional Day- January 30. A day for teachers to work with teachers with guidance from Steven Levy. Some issues we worked on involved keeping bullying out of our classrooms, halls, and playgrounds, and finding ways to deal with isolation, cliques, or feelings of being left out. In addition to this special day together, all teachers have been sharing personal experiences and simple group activities at our faculty meetings to enhance respect and community in our classrooms, especially daily classroom meetings.


• All School Meeting Performances:


• Judy Bush, a ventriloquist who uses large oversized puppets to reach out on important themes of respect and community, worked with the entire school in November at a special All School Meeting. She is a wonderful speaker/performer who got the kids and teachers thinking about and involved in the tenets of respect for one another in a playful, dynamic way.


• The Quiltmaker's Gift. Debra Bookis' second grade class and Mary Ann Brandt's fifth grade class joined to give an All School Meeting Performance of The Quiltmaker's Gift, written by Jeff Brumbeau. This lovely story emphasized the qualities of generosity and patience.


• Chrysanthemum. The faculty performed a version of this engaging children's story about overcoming name-calling and ridicule for the student body just before the winter vacation. Students seem to love seeing their teachers perform ’Äì especially if they are acting out being naughty children.


• Grades 5 & 6 Service Learning ’Äî Sportsmanship in our Community. Fifth and sixth grade teachers and their students are taking the Handshake Project into many different arenas of the professional and amateur sports world as our service learning this year. A-B Service Learning grant funds will help underwrite some modest costs associated with these grade 5/6 service projects. Our plans include:


• Sportsmanship Surveys: Students are drafting surveys about experiences of sportsmanship in local youth sports. Hopefully the results of this survey will be to increase awareness about what goes on in the amateur sports world at all levels, but especially here in Acton.


• Sportsmanship Pledge: Students in Rachel Russell's class and Tom Sidley's class are working on a pledge that students and adults would sign to reinforce good sportsmanship at local games, both on and off the field.


• Sportsmanship Skits: Children are creating skits and fables to perform for younger kids in an attempt to strengthen attitudes around positive sportsmanship - both as players and fans. Some of these sportsmanship fables seek to give kids the language to say "yes" to good sportsmanship.


• Sportsmanship Stories: Some of the grade 5 & 6 classes are beginning to gather sportsmanship stories from kids and grownups here in town and hoping to extend the collection to state, national, and perhaps even worldwide anecdotes ’Äî both good and bad. Eventually we may find ways to publish these stories, either in print or online.


• "It's How You Play the Game" Sportsmanship Evening March 13. (See related story.) We have Bob Bigelow, Peter Roby, and Nora Hann coming to serve as panelists in our evening devoted to sportsmanship in our local community. We are working to make connections to the print and broadcast media. The Red Sox have donated two tickets to a game at Fenway as a door prize; and we have two tickets to a Yankees game in New York City as a second door prize. Like so much of what we have been able to do this year, the financial backing for this event will be coming from our XM Satellite Radio Sportsmanship grant. We're hoping that many people from the Merriam community can make it to this evening devoted to sportsmanship. It's at R.J. Grey Junior High Cafeteria.

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