Rep. Hayes: Education saved my life

SALISBURY — U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-5) attended the 25th anniversary celebration for the 21st Century Fund for Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS) at the Interlaken Inn  in Lakeville on Wednesday, Oct. 2.

The fund was created in 1994 by HVRHS Principal Jack Mahoney, when he returned from a year-long sabbatical in which he traveled across the U.S. to see what other schools were doing to support and encourage their students (and faculty) in and out of the classroom.

The fund was one of the earliest projects of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, which was founded in 1987. 

In the past 25 years, the 21st Century Fund has awarded grants totaling $270,000 for projects as diverse as the robotics, envirothon and electric car teams at the high school; annual student and faculty trips to China and Germany and U.S. destinations as diverse as Washington, D.C., and New Orleans; grants for students that support ingenuity, creativity and humanitarianism; and professional development programs for teachers.

The fund also helped convert the former agriculture education building on the high school campus into what is now the Mahoney-Hewat Science and Technology Center, with an investment of more than a half million dollars. 

Hayes, who was the 2016 National Teacher of the Year, congratulated and commended the fund for helping students and teachers in this rural area to learn beyond the walls of the classroom.

“When we invest in young people and we believe in them, there is nothing that they can’t do,” she said.

Education saved her life, she said, adding that educational leaders need to see through the eyes of the children to know what is best for the students.

More than 100 people attended the event at the Interlaken, to show support for the fund and to look at the displays explaining recent projects made possible by grants from the fund.

Richard Gustafson, former president of Southern New Hampshire University and a 2019 graduate of HVRHS, has been a supporter of the fund since it was started in 1994.

“Young people today are more apt to be education-rich and experience-poor,” he said. “This 21st Century Fund has really shifted the balance again — the balance between experience and education.”

The fund has provided students with valuable experience to complement their formal education, he said. 

State Rep. Maria Horn (D-64) praised the fund for its commitment to students and presented an official citation from the Connecticut General Assembly, recognizing and congratulating the fund on its anniversary.

The 21st Century Fund “creates all kinds of new opportunities, different kinds of experiences and different kinds of learners,” Horn said.

David Bayersdorfer, a retired HVRHS teacher who is now chairman of the 21st Century Fund, announced that Nancy and Mike Mahoney will match donations up to $2,500 generated from the anniversary party. 

The Mahoneys are the adult children of Jack Mahoney, who died in 2011.

To learn more about the fund, go to www.21stcenturyfund.net.