An Eversource employee volunteer helps a child get the company’s lineworker outfit on.
Reminder Publishing photo by Tyler Lederer
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Sometimes, summer camp isn’t about being in the woods. Sometimes, it’s about being in a gymnasium, where Eversource employees help children put on safety vests and gloves that are much too big for them, and then have them shoot hoops.
That’s what happened on July 30, anyway, when the West Springfield Boys and Girls Club collaborated with Eversource for “Eversource Day.”
“It’s just a really fun time,” said Boys and Girls Club assistant development professional Victoria Larriva. “It’s a great experience for these kids.”
The event featured 40 volunteers from the utility company doing energy- and engineering-based activities with the 5- to 13-year-old children in the West Springfield Boys and Girls Club’s summer program.
This included the “lineworker relay races,” where kids raced to see who could most quickly put on an Eversource lineworker’s outfit and shoot a basketball. Kids could also “touch a truck,” which involved them climbing inside, playing with the radio, flashing the headlights and maneuvering a hooked-on bucket up and down (without any children in the bucket!).
More educational were the bottle rockets, which shot up into the sky due to a mix of vinegar and baking soda. That taught them about gas energy and chemical reactions, said Eversource program manager Amanda Heinsen. Kids got another shot at learning about gas energy through the balloon cars, though the “cars” were actually plastic bottles.
Kids also learned about solar energy, UV energy, and the clean energy transition through color-changing “solar beads.” They also got to ride an “energy efficiency bike,” which was connected to a display with LED and non-LED light bulbs. Pedaling faster would cause the LED light bulbs lit up faster, proving they were more efficient.
Eversource has held “Eversource Days” before, said Heinsen, with each looking different depending on the Boys and Girls Club they collaborate with. Larriva and Heinsen spent months creating hands-on, interactive activities, she said, that teach children about STEM concepts related to the company.
“We really hit around the park,” Heinsen said.
Besides the STEM and energy education, Larriva said the day also gives children a chance to learn about and meet people in the energy industry. Heinsen, Larriva said, made sure that some of the Eversource volunteers were women.
For the volunteers themselves, Heinsen said the day was a break from work and a boost of energy and morale.
“Eversource Day” was part of the West Springfield Boys and Girls Club’s eight-week summer program, which runs five days a week each summer between 7 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Up to 160 school-age children and 40 preschoolers took part this year.
This year’s activities included a field trip to the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford and “touch-a-cruiser” with the local sheriff’s department.
As for whether Eversource Day will come back, Heinsen said Eversource usually chooses another Boys and Girls to collaborate with, but is open to future partnerships with West Springfield’s. Larriva was equally supportive.
“We don’t have anything planned like this again but we’re open to it,” she said.
