Cherry students display town history

CHERRY — As anyone who has gone to school knows, sometimes it can be difficult for students to connect with their lessons. This isn’t a problem Cherry Elementary students currently face.

On Thursday afternoon, the Cherry Grade School gymnasium was home to a history fair. Students from fifth grade through eighth grade created backboards displaying events and traditions specific to the Village of Cherry.

The displays represented many aspects of the town’s history. There were projects on the fire department, the bank, the library, the school, and even J.T.’s Bar & Grill, but the majority was on the Cherry Mine Disaster.

According to seventh- and eighth-grade Social Studies teacher Chris Uranich, students have been learning about the Cherry Mine Disaster since the start of the school year. Students have heard local historians speak on the subject and have taken class trips to the Cherry Public Library. Most recently, the students went on a field trip to the Lincoln Library and Museum in Springfield and saw an entire floor dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Cherry Mine Disaster.

It’s not an accident that the history fair coincides with the Cherry Mine Disaster memorial held this weekend in Cherry. “We wanted to tie in school activities with what is going on in the community,” said principal Tom Nesti.

Typically, students in a history fair can base their projects on any piece of history in the entire state of Illinois, but to help commemorate the anniversary, the school decided to focus on Cherry.

“Many students found out they had relatives, or friends of relatives, involved with the Cherry Mine,” said Donna Gerrard, fifth- and sixth-grade Social Studies teacher. “A lot of this was from oral interviews.”

The projects will be on display as a part of the anniversary ceremony today, Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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