"Neckties Make The M.A.L.E.S."

IN THEIR NECKTIES Luis Almedina, 12, Kenneth Hernandez, 13, and Bryant Padilla, 12, walk the halls of Dr. Michael D. Fox School on their way to lunch earlier this month. They are member of Men Achieving Leadership, Excellence and Success, or M.A.L.E.S. It is a mentoring club at Fox in Hartford started by Ashon Avent, the school's behavior technician. Avent was a founding member of M.A.L.E.S. while a student at Eastern Connecticut State University. The students wear ties on Wednesdays, the group's meeting day. (MARK MIRKO | mmirko@courant.com)

Ashon Avent is an enterprising stonecatcher.

Hartford Courant reporter Vanessa De La Torre's excellent and inspiring article "Neckties Make The M.A.L.E.S." tells story of Avent's program to develop leadership skills in the young men at Hartford's M.D. Fox School. It's a must read.

It starts with a tie.

Don Shaw, Jr.
Write and Editor
RedTruckStonecatcher.com

Village Elder from Nepal Thanks Hartford Students for Power Turbines

Yakable T-shirt

They are Yakable! 

Packed on the backs of yaks, that's how the wind-solar generating systems built by Hartford Public High School's  Academy of Engineering and Green Technology students were transported on the final leg of their trek up to Nepal's isolated villages of Saldang, Namdo, and Karang. This week, Thinley Lhondup Lama, popular Nepalese actor and village elder, visited the Academy to personally thank the students, faculty and benefactors. I wish I could have been there.

Supported by a collaboration of forward thinking educators, a generous philanthropist, and the backing of the business community, Academy students are Doing what others think is impossible, the motto on their Yakable t-shirt. This Academy program is education at its finest; academics applied to the real world.

I had the honor of meeting many of the students and school leaders last year when I toured the on-campus shop where the power systems were built. Also, I can attest to the students' commitment to community service locally. Working side by side with them last fall, I saw their hard work first hand when they helped clean up and repair the Marshall House shelter's playground on nearby South Marshall Street. They made this commitment in partnership with the efforts of street residents, Hartford Area Habitat for Humanity, and the South Marshall Interfaith Coalition who are collaborating to improve the street's quality of life.

To learn the details and impact of the Academy's exceptional program, please read Vanessa de la Torre's Hartford Courant article, Thank-You From Nepal.

Also, Check out the video from NBC30's reporting of the story.

Don Shaw, Jr.

Writer and Editor

RedTruckStonecatcher.com