Teens step in to rebuild preschoolers’ damaged milk jug igloo

By Greg Hart
Sports editor

A  milk jug igloo built for a class of preschoolers and torn apart within two days of its completion has been reconstructed by a group of teenagers, much to the delight of the little ones and their teachers.

On Monday, April 1, Chester Community Preschool teacher assistant Kathleen Karl posted on her Facebook page, “So sad to come to school today to find the preschool milk jug igloo destroyed. After endless hours and countless hot glue sticks, it was finally finished and brought out to the playground. The kids had two days of play in it.”

The inside of the milk jug igloo is colorful with caps. Photos by Greg Hart.

A new window is the hit of the new igloo…

as anyone on the outside looking in can tell.

ON THE COVER: Opportunities in Learning students who rebuilt the igloo help to carry it back into the preschoolers’ playground.

That morning, the caretaker at Green Mountain Union High School, where the preschool is located, had discovered milk jugs strewn around the corner and throughout the parking lot. Teachers assumed it was vandalism.

But all was not lost, thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of the high schoolers in the Opportunities in Learning program, who for the second time happily lent their hands to help the preschoolers and their igloo.

So, on a chilly Wednesday, April 3, morning, with much enthusiasm, curiosity and gratitude, the preschoolers and their teachers bundled outside to greet the new milk jug igloo as the high schoolers ushered it to the site.

The kids immediately began exploring the igloo, crawling in, then enjoying the view out of its nifty rear window.

The idea of an igloo made of milk jugs came from 4-year-old preschooler Kaiden McCarthy. Karl took on the project, collecting empty jugs from the preschoolers’ families. “It took me about 15 hours over the course of nearly two months to complete,” said “Miss Kathleen,” as she is known to her students. “It required a special glue and glue gun. And we only had one (glue gun) so it took a while.”

“The (Opportunities in Learning) students couldn’t believe that someone would do that, especially something belonging to these little kids. They came to me and said ‘We need to do something about this.’”

Mark Burbela
OIL Teacher

The original project not only took time but quite a bit of space, so much so that it was constructed in a room across the hall from the preschool classroom. “When it was finished, there was no way I could get it out to the playground myself so I went down to the nearby OIL classroom to see if the high school kids could help out,” Karl said. “Within five minutes they had gotten the igloo out to the playground. They were just great.”

The OIL students were as disappointed in the destruction as everyone else, said their teacher Mark Burbela. “The students couldn’t believe that someone would do that, especially something belonging to these little kids. They came to me and said ‘We need to do something about this.’”

The high schoolers, led by Drew Lambert, Jamie Douglas and Bekka Blanchard, acted quickly, collecting the scattered remains and rebuilding the structure bigger and better than before. They had finished the new igloo by the following afternoon.

“They did such an amazing job rebuilding,” Karl noted. “They even added a chimney and a window, and they did it so quickly. Maybe I should have had them do it from the start.”

The preschoolers showed their appreciation by crafting and signing a huge igloo shaped poster, which they then presented to their older counterparts.