Madelyn Rivard, a member of West Hartford BSA Troop 1163, presented her Eagle Scout project Wednesday morning at the Family Resource Center at Charter Oak International Academy.

By Ronni Newton

Madelyn “Maddie” Rivard is hoping that within the next few months she will become the first member of Troop 1163 to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, but  as that process continues there are 17 West Hartford families that are the immediate beneficiaries of her Eagle Scout project.

On Wednesday morning, Maddie presented each of the families that participate in the “English for Families and Futures” program, which meets at the Family Resource Center at Charter Oak International Academy in West Hartford, with their own bookcase – filled with books. As part of her Eagle Scout project, she collected donations, coordinated the building and painting of the wooden bookcases by volunteers, stocked them with books, and brought them to Charter Oak.

Troop 1163 is the girls troop that’s linked to West Hartford’s Boy Scout Troop 163 that meets at Westminster Presbyterian Church. In 2019, Boy Scouts of America, which serves youth ages 11-17, began allowing girls to join and rebranded as Scouts BSA. Maddie lives in Farmington and is a junior at Farmington High School, but there’s not a troop in Farmington that has a linked troop for girls so she joined the West Hartford troop, which has members from other area towns as well. Her mom, Melisa Rivard, is the now the Troop 1163 Scoutmaster.

The literacy program is a collaboration between West Hartford Public School’s Adult Education and the Bridge Family Center, and is funded by a federal grant. “While our parents study English, their children participate in preschool play,” said Dawn Hambrecht, an adult education teacher who leads the program. “Parents and children join together for activities that promote English, good parenting, literacy, and school readiness,” Hambrecht said.

Some of the families have been in the U.S. for just a few weeks when they join the program, but Hambrecht said for all, early literacy is so important. “Children who are read to at least three times a week are almost twice as likely to score in the top 25% in reading compared to children who are not read to. By the age of 2, these children who are read to regularly will display greater language comprehension, larger vocabularies, and higher cognitive skills than their unread-to peers.” Having books in the home has a major impact on a child’s interest in reading, she added.

Hambrecht said the bookcase project was inspired by the book “I’ll Build You a Bookcase” by Jean Fahey, which she received as a gift. Her connection to scouting through her sister, Heidi-Ann Mooney, and Hambrecht thought perhaps a scout could turn her inspiration into reality. Mooney shared the idea – and that led to Maddie proposing her Eagle Scout project.

“I literally cried because it was so beautiful to have books, and literature, and the community working together,” said Hambrecht, who also read aloud some excerpts from the book.

“I was super excited about this project,” Maddie said. “I love reading,” she said, and she knows how important it is for young kids and families.

About half of the books that fill the bookcases were actually donated by Melissa Nadeau, one of the assistant scoutmasters from Troop 1163 – but the way that happened was fortuitous. Nadeau ran into an acquaintance at Goodwill who was bringing in a load of books that she had been trying to give away – and convinced them to donate the books to Maddie’s project. “They’re not new books, but they’re in good shape,” Maddie said.

Other books were donated by friends and family. Maddie looked through all of the books to ensure they were in good shape, appropriate, and not too hard to read.

The distribution of the books in the specific bins was handled by those who run the Family Literacy Program. The books are for children as well as the adult English language learners who are all practicing their literacy skills.

“I’m so happy about how many families it’s going to help,” Maddie said.

Maddie said she has completed all of her badges, but before officially earning her Eagle Scout designation the project will be reviewed to ensure she has completed the requirements. “I’ve learned what I’ve meant to from this, which is the leadership skills of communication, organization … so I feel confident about it,” she said.

Maddie, who is now a senior patrol leader with Troop 1163, wants to stay involved in scouting but also focus on crew with hopes to take on more leadership in that sport next year, in her senior year of high school. She said she loves the field of education and as of now is considering applying to college to study forensic psychology.

Shelley Solomon, director of West Hartford Public Schools Adult Education, said the English for Families and Futures program has been such a successful collaboration. “We’re very fortunate to be here at Charter Oak because it’s a wonderful place,” she said.

Participants in the program – adults and children who are preschool age and younger – attend twice a week for three hours at a time, throughout the whole year. Some have have infants, but there are helpers to hold the infants so the parents can focus on the program.

Two of the nursery helpers were former participants in the program, Solomon said. “We hired them and this was their first American job,” Hambrecht added.

The families were excited for Wednesday’s celebration as well, and brought an assortment of dishes representing their native countries. Many also dressed up in their cultural attire.

“A community of generous people have made this significant gift of the ‘magic of reading’ possible,” Hambrecht said.

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