To the Editor:
On behalf of the eighth grade students of the Oak Bluffs and Tisbury Schools, we would like to show our utmost appreciation to Sondra Murphy and her excellent staff at the Oak Bluffs library for allowing us to host a valuable eighth-grade event. Since November, a field trip had been planned to go to the new Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston to participate in a U.S. Senate simulation. Two weeks prior to the trip, the institute notified us that they would be closed the day of our trip.
Through much communication, the institute graciously offered to come to Martha’s Vineyard to recreate their Senate simulation on-Island. Since both schools had inadequate space, we called the Oak Bluffs library. Sondra Murphy could not have been more accommodating and welcoming. We moved around furniture, filled the library with approximately 60 eighth graders, and basically took over. The kids worked “across the aisle” to approve a presidential nomination, stop a filibuster, and pass an intensive immigration-reform bill. This incredible experience would not have been possible without the wonderful people at the Oak Bluffs library.
Stacey Morris-Porterfield, Oak Bluffs School social studies
Reuben Fitzgerald, Tisbury School social studies