SALISBURY – Gingerbread cookies, produced by first-grade students at Salisbury Elementary School, were a treat awaiting those who toured the Pike School Sunday during the town’s tree lighting ceremony.
The students in Cara O’Connor’s class accepted the invitation from Connie Hellwig, the vice chair of the Salisbury Historical Commission, to make the gingerbread cookies to raise money to help maintain a one-room schoolhouse on the town square, built in the 1880s.
Hellwig collected the cookies last week and talked to the students about the role the school played in educating first through third graders in the early days of Salisbury. Telling the students about the importance of preserving the town’s history, she passed around books from the 1800s and talked about how the students used those books to learn to read and write sentences.
She asked the students if they could not ride a school bus to school, how would they get there. The students raised their hands, and one said they would walk. Another described a carriage, which Hellwig agreed was one way the students would ride to school.
Other artifacts from the 1800s that wowed the students included a bucket and a ladle that the students in the past used instead of drinking from a water fountain.
Also attending the presentation were school principal Kathryn Dawe and vice-president Jane Keeler.
