Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: If you really knew me if you really knew me if you really knew.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Me if you really knew me you.
[00:00:07] Speaker A: Would know hey, who are you?
[00:00:09] Speaker C: Who, me?
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Yeah, you. It's Monday.
[00:00:17] Speaker C: Hello and welcome to If You Knew Me Mondays, a student powered Park Day inspired podcast that builds belonging by sharing stories perspectives from the margins of our schooling community.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: Say what?
[00:00:31] Speaker C: My name is Adie, I'm a 6th grader and in my third year of the podcast club.
In middle school, student clubs meet every Tuesday and Thursday and we have a ton of great options that range from photojournalism to trick soccer. I chose Podcast Club because it's really fun creating stories about our community and it lets me express myself in different ways. This year, I've learned that middle school Podcast Club is very different than lower school. It moves way quicker. I'm moving from one project to the next in a matter of minutes, not days. Speaking of moving quickly, park Day is constantly evolving. There are so many stories to tell. Up next, we're going to be sharing the first middle school produced podcast episode of the year. A story all about our new Park Day pavilion.
Thanks for tuning in and now on to the show.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Good morning, Park Day.
It is 11:50 a.m. On September 26, and this has been a long time in the making.
[00:01:52] Speaker C: Do you recognize that voice? That's our head of school, Angela Taylor, and she's right outside the Magnolia Building in front of the meadow for the ribbon cutting of our school's brand new pavilion. Hi, my name is Lucas, I'm in 6th grade and this is my first year at Park Day. And if you really knew me, you know this is my first time ever working on a podcast and I'm here with two other middle school podcasters. Hi, I'm Zadie, I'm also in 6th grade and if you really knew me, you'd know that this is my first year running cross country. And on our practice days, we meet up right beside the pavilion. And I'm Shay, I'm in 7th grade and if you really knew me, you'd know that I love baking, ensuring my creations with my family. One of my favorite things to make is chocolate pudding.
With help from our middle school podcast club and voices from our students and staff, up next are going to be sharing the backstory and important purpose of this new Park Day feature. Thanks for tuning in. And now let's get back to Angela.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: Two years ago we thought, oh my gosh, it's raining so much, how on earth will we ever have lunch again? Because it will never stop raining. And we thought we needed a place for Park Day students and the community to come and have lunch and have events in a dry covered space. Here's what we did. We asked all of your families to help and they did. So today on September 26. We are all pleased to open officially the Park Day Pavilion. Let's do a countdown from ten 987-65-4321.
Yay.
[00:03:50] Speaker C: Wow, that's a lot of energy. Clearly, the students have been waiting for this moment. Let's check in with our community to learn about the behind the scenes of this pavilion and why the students and staff are so excited.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: My name is Jennifer, and I'm the facilities director here at Park Day. So we made the pavilion. We came up with the idea of creating a pavilion a couple of years ago when during COVID we were eating outside all the time and we had these tents, and the tents kept coming down in the wind and the rain, and people got wet. And Eddie and Pedro here ended up having to do a lot of work to try to put the tents back up. And we decided we really needed a permanent structure out there.
[00:04:35] Speaker C: Why do we make a pavilion in the meadow?
[00:04:38] Speaker D: Why? Because that's a beautiful place right there under the trees, and that's a relaxing place that you guys can join. It is a really nice place to be outside eating lunch right there. And my name is Pedro.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: There's a lot of different ways that we're hoping that we can use the pavilion beyond just using it for like an outdoor cafeteria area for people to have lunch. There are more and more family gatherings now with parents that can then join in that space. We're going to have a board retreat this weekend, and some of that is going to take place in the new pavilion. And there's a lot of other community gatherings where we need that sort of outsourced space that's covered. And so we're going to have in the future put in speakers and we're going to have some kind of projection system so that we can have lots of different events in the pavilion structure.
[00:05:32] Speaker C: That's really cool. Hearing from our facilities team, you can tell a lot of thought went into the project, and it sounds like there will be a lot of different types of activities in the pavilion that will make our school better and the students happier. Speaking of students, Jeanine was on hand ready to interview our younger friends at Park Day. Here she is now.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: Okay, so now we have the pavilion that's open, and I'm wondering, what do you think?
[00:05:59] Speaker A: My name is Rocco, I'm in first grade. I like the pavilion really much, and the sunny tables and shady table tables. And last year in kindergarten, there was a thunderstorm and we were lightning and we were walking back. Well, I think it's going to protect us, but it's like raining, and I wonder if it's going to run on these last two tables. I wonder if they're all going to get wet, because, you see, it could whip over the side and then drop on these tables. So I wonder how that's going to work.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: I wonder that too. That is a really good observation.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Start pouring right now. We might just get wet. We might get wet.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:57] Speaker C: That was interesting. It sounds like some of our younger students are very worried about the weather based on last year's experience. But personally, I don't think it will be too much of a problem. Nonetheless, having a roof over a head will be super helpful, especially when it's raining.
[00:07:14] Speaker B: My first impressions is that it's very beautiful and Lodgy kind of just reminds me of some cool nature vibes. It reminds me of Knottsbury Farm a little bit, actually. Like being at summer camp as a kid.
I think that having the roof might actually cut down on stimulus overload at lunch. You know, all the yelling and talking over each other when we get excited.
So maybe it'll make it feel more like cozy and contained and hopefully it.
[00:07:46] Speaker C: Doesn'T echo too much. Emma's right. It can really get very loud at lunch, and at times you can barely hear yourself. Now let's check in with some more students.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: How else do you think we might be able to use this pavilion space?
[00:08:00] Speaker A: Assemblies, I think. Assemblies. We could put assemblies here, take off the table. There's a big move space. So yeah, we could do assemblies in here.
[00:08:10] Speaker C: Yeah, I can imagine. Assemblies. I wonder how many grades we can fit in the pavilion. I'm not sure we can fit everybody.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: We could have soccer games here.
[00:08:21] Speaker E: That would be fun.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: You see. Taking off all the tables.
[00:08:26] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: I don't know if anyone's thought about that yet. Thanks so much for talking with me today about the new pavilion here's.
[00:08:33] Speaker C: What a couple of Park Day teachers had to say.
[00:08:35] Speaker E: Well, it's a great gathering space, right? So several different classes and groups can gather under there and we can have more events under there. So always good.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: It feels like a really intentional space to be together.
[00:08:52] Speaker C: Now let's see what our fourth and fifth grade students think.
[00:08:55] Speaker A: I am super duper excited that we can finally eat lunch in the shade because we literally never got that, except for the umbrellas that never actually covered the whole entire table.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: What are your first impressions? What do you notice?
Well, they built it really well.
You could do a lot of things with it. I think it might keep the wasps away too, because it's kind of shady and I think they like the sun. My name is Ruby and I'm in fifth grade.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: My name is Olivia.
I'm in fourth grade in Sarah's class. And I think the pavilion is a very nice place and I think a lot of people love it. And it's gathering. It makes me feel like we have a place where we could eat safely, warmly, and I think it's really nice. And if we had to use it in a different way, I think we could use it for music or something.
PE. Maybe not, but maybe.
And I think it was so nice of the school to just be able to build this. And thank you for everyone who supported us in getting money to build this.
[00:10:23] Speaker C: I totally agree with Olivia. I think that it's important to show our gratitude towards the parents, staff and others involved in making this project.
After all, this is going to benefit our community in so many ways. And who knows, maybe the next project could be a gym. Wink, wink.
We'll follow up later in the year to see what kind of cool things happened to the pavilion. There's so much potential. Before we go, we want to thank everybody whose voice was heard in this episode. And we want to thank our entire production team, including our field reporters, James and Janine, and our sound designers, Kishan and Finn, who go by the name Fish Infusion.
Thank you for those fire beats. Once again, this is Ad, Lucas and Shay, and we'll see you around.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: It's park day, hooray. You heard?
