Think of walking down the pier on a warm summer day: skeeball, basketball, air hockey, bowling, plinko, mini golf, and even a photobooth. The Bedwell Boardwalk brought all of this and more to their beach and boardwalk-inspired event on Wednesday, May 21st. People of all ages turned up to see the creations of the students who had spent many days designing and building their designs in action.
The gymnasium was transformed into a makeshift boardwalk, with visitors able to walk through and play various games. Guests could win raffle tickets from games and turn them in for prizes at the shore shop area. In the center was a four-hole mini golf course, with players needing to navigate obstacles and challenges to reach the hole. Flashing colored lights were strung across the ceiling, and a beach scene replication with beach chairs, buckets, seagulls, and more was in the back corner.
Mr. Allen Thurlow, the Technology & Design teacher at Bedwell, has been doing this event for years and took charge once again this year with his students. He says, “[this event] took hours and hours of designing and helping bring ideas to life, lots of hard work; consulting with teachers, parents, and the HSA. Some projects failed at first, but they eventually became a great success.”
Finn Thompson, a fourth grader at Bedwell, said, “I’m really proud of how it came out; it looks really good.” He continued, saying that “[Jack Perret, Cam Glenn, and I] were all pretty excited for the day of the boardwalk to show others what we made.”
As guests walked into the event, they were each given a raffle ticket. With these tickets, they were permitted to give them to the person running each arcade game in exchange for a turn. Depending on if the guests won the game, they were given multiple raffle tickets in exchange, later trading the tickets for prizes at the prize center.
When asked why the event is so special for the kids, Mr. Thurlow said, “The boardwalk is more interactive than years past. Everyone is enjoying the games, and the fact that other classmates made the games makes it so much more special.”Walking around the gym, nearly everything was made by kids of various ages at Bedwell, ranging from the kindergarten class to the fourth grade.
HSA co-president, Kelly Hunt, had a few words to say about the event: “The boardwalk is probably the top three biggest community events for Bedwell, and it is a great way to cap off the year for all the fourth graders who put in lots of hard work to reach this point.”
The current junior class, who graduated from Bedwell in 2018, helped build a cardboard New York City as fourth graders. Andrew Tropp ‘26 recalls, “I remember it being a really fun time, it took a lot of hard work, but it was very satisfying at the end, walking through and seeing our work come to life.”
Mr. Thurlow continued, “The kids were really excited, and their faces lit up when they saw the boardwalk fully put together for the first time. [The students] were very dedicated, coming in for extra time to work on their projects.”
Fionn Regan, a fourth grader at Bedwell, said that “it took about 7-10 classes to create” and he was “pretty excited” for the day to come.
Walking into the gym, guests were immediately greeted with games, running along the sides of the gymnasium. In the center, a four-hole mini golf course and a prize center alongside it. Rainbow colored lights lined the air above, with music playing in the background. On the opposite side of the gym, there was a gallery of boardwalk-inspired drawings and a Bedwell Beach in the corner.
Mr. Thurlow notes that he doesn’t want the same thing every year to “keep the excitement” and stay away from repeating ideas because he believes “it takes away from that excitement factor for the students.” He said, “I saw a few other schools that tried this boardwalk theme and thought it would be fun to bring to Bedwell.”
The event started before Mr. Thurlow was in charge of the tech program. Mrs. Judi Jensen started with the KICK EXPO, which stood for: Kids Inventing Character ed Kreations. Since this original event, there have been others, including archiTECHture, Maker-Faire, and the Air and Space Museum.
Mr. Thurlow would like to thank Mr. Noonan, Mr. and Mrs. Paterno, Ms. Brooten, Mrs. Leonard, Mr. Mirando, Mrs. Jacobs, Mr. and Mrs. Donohue, Mrs. Dooley, and Mrs. Vu for all of their hard work and dedication to making this event possible.
The most important aspect of the event, says Thurlow, is that it is a “good lesson for bringing an idea to life for these students.” The Bedwell Boardwalk certainly accomplished that this year with innovative ideas, boardwalk experience, and child-driven designs that brought the ideas of the Bedwell students to life.
