Photos: Altamont Celebrates Constitution Day
Altamont’s first Constitution Day, on Sept. 17, attracted many families with children who learned about the nation’s founding document through a variety of crafts and displays.
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Meg Seinberg-Hughs, founder of Helderberg Indivisible and a retired school librarian, welcomes people to Altamont’s Constitution Day on Sept. 17. Pictures depicting important dates in the nation’s founding are pinned to a clothesline in the foreground.
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Suffragist Alice Paul, portrayed by Katie Fahrenkopf, gives a heartfelt answer to this girl’s question: “Why didn’t they let women vote?” Fahrenkopf’s table at the Sept. 17 Constitution Day celebration in Altamont included a craft where kids could make buttons like those worn by the suffragists; she suggested this girl draw a sunflower, a symbol used by those who fought for the 19th Amendment.
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Edna Litten reads Dr. Seuss’s “Yertle the Turtle” at Altamont’s Constitution Day in Orsini Park. Yertle, the king of the pond, wants to expand his kingdom and has the other turtles stand on top of each other, declaring, from his towering perch, he is king of all he sees — until the turtle at the bottom of the stack burps and the throne comes tumbling down.
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Benjamin Franklin, portrayed by David Grapka, demonstrates the use of a quill pen at his table showing some of Franklin’s many accomplishments. Keyrose Joseph, 14, standing at right, said his younger brother told him about the Constitution Day celebration in Altamont. “It’s about America — let’s go,” he told his brother.
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Altamont’s first Constitution Day, on Sept. 17, attracted many families with children who learned about the nation’s founding document through a variety of crafts and displays.
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Great oaks from little acorns grow: Michelle Dworkin helps her 6-year-old daughter, Ilona, at left, string acorns into a necklace at a display put together by Diana Greene. Greene had real oak branches representing the branches of government and said she wanted to plant the seed for children to learn about them. Dworkin said she came to Altamont’s Constitution Day because she had been fired on Sept. 2 from her job working for the United States Agency for International Development; she had been a foreign-service officer for 17 years. Dworkin also said that her daughter’s name means “oak tree” in Hebrew.
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Maureen Brown-Lansaw, left, proudly displaying the First Amendment on her T-shirt, and Pat Cooper, wearing a costume she had from being an Erie Canal docent, greet comers to Constitution Day in Altamont on Sept. 17. They handed out passports that participants marked as they visited various tables to learn about the Constitution.