Rumney Marsh Students will Head to DC for the National History Fair Finals

In June Rumney Marsh Academy students Kathy Trinh, Christy Ly, AndriKadaifciu, and Emma Higgins will represent the entire state of Massachusetts at the National History Fair Finals in Washington DC in June.

The four eighth grade students recently placed second in the state finals for the National History Fair, which qualified them to represent the Commonwealth at the national finals in the state capital.

“The group’s placement marks the third year in a row that the Rumney Marsh Academy will be represented at the National Finals for History Fair, an incredibly impressive accomplishment,” said Revere School Superintendent Dianne Kelly.

At the last School Committee meeting the four students said the project was a departure from the standard history fair project with poster boards or powerpoint presentations.

The students decided to conduct a live performance detailing Mother Jones fight against child labor during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. The presentation will highlight certain parts of Jones’s life. She was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent organized labor representative. In 1903, to protest the lax enforcement of the child labor laws in the Pennsylvania mines and silk mills, and organized a children’s march from Philadelphia to the home of President Theodore Roosevelt in New York.

“We decided to focus on child labor and Mother Jones affect on it. We were talking about child labor laws and how her (Jones) work affect us to this day,” said Andri.

Christy explained that the main protagonist in their performances is Mother Jones and how she was the main reason child labor was abolished in the U.S.

“Children under 14 had to go to work in factories and mills and they would get injured, sick and sometimes die,” said Kathy. “Now since Mother Jones fought for children , we can go to school and don’t have to work anymore.”

The four students then performed for the School Committee. The performance was incredibly real and shocking true of how bad child labor was in the early 1900s.

“I’m incredibly proud of this group of students, these students have been working incredibly hard on this history fair project,” said Rumney Marsh Principal Richard Gallucci. “This project is very unique.”