Dear Editor:

As the principal of a small school in a tight-knit community, I am lucky enough to witness the incredible capacity of our children to learn and give. The examples I could give are many, but one annual tradition at Southport School stands out above the rest.

In 2021, an anonymous donor approached the school with a visionary idea: give students the power to change a community. Students are tasked with researching a charity and turning their findings into an oral presentation for the school. After the presentations, one charity is chosen to be the recipient of a $2,000 cash donation.

Five years into this project, the Southport Philanthropy Project has become woven into the fabric of the end of our school year, and students start talking about it months before the research begins. Although the research and presentations begin in the fourth grade, younger students get to participate in the project by listening to the presentations and voting. Involving the younger students plants the seeds of excitement for the program in students as young as kindergarten.

This year, the winning charity was Soles4Souls - a non-profit organization committed to ensuring children have access to proper footwear, a well-known barrier to education and extra-curricular activities. In 2025, Soles4Souls donated over 5.9 million pairs of shoes and is working closely with a few school districts here in Maine to provide students with footwear.

On Monday, June 8, Jonah Fessenden was invited to the Soles4Souls Global Zoom Call. Theresa Miller, the vice president of development for Soles4Souls, organized the invite, and Jonah presented his research to an audience of over 20 members of the Soles4Souls team.

In a world that often underestimates what young children can achieve, students across our peninsula schools consistently prove that empathy is a muscle that grows stronger with practice. We are deeply grateful to the donor who began this project in 2021, and immeasurably proud of the young citizens who keep it alive today.

Shawn Gallagher

Southport Central School Teaching Principal