‘Until We Get Him’
Leprechaun Eludes Capture By WACS Traps
WESTFIELD — The mischievous leprechaun once again eluded capture by the second grade students of Westfield Academy and Central School, but “we’re going to keep trying until we get him,” said elementary school principal, Dr. Mary Rockey.
For more than 30 years, WACS second graders have built leprechaun traps, which are displayed at the Leprechaun Invention Convention, but the wily fellow continues to evade their grasp.
“We haven’t caught him yet, but he’s been pretty naughty in the elementary school today,” Rockey said. Apart from general mayhem, such as putting the teacher’s chair on a student’s desk, the leprechaun walked through green paint and left foot prints through one classroom, scattered green sprinkles and shamrocks throughout another, and was even so bold as to use the bathroom, leaving green water and shamrocks in the toilet, Rockey said.
Second grade students have been building leprechaun traps since the 1980’s when now-retired teacher, Katherine Lydon Wollaston, began the tradition. Wollaston, who has since written a children’s book about leprechauns called Heart of Gold, was present for Thursday’s convention.
“I always had leprechaun happenings in my classroom near St. Patrick’s Day,” Wollaston said. “It’s just a fun time for me. I always played Irish music for the kids, too.”
Wollaston said for met students who she has met through the years always remember the leprechaun traps. “So, that’s my legacy,” she said.
Second grade teachers, Mrs. Jaime Cerrie, Mrs. Brenda Christ, and Mr. Michael Putney, were eager to praise the students’ inventiveness in building the traps and a life-size leprechaun house.
“Every year there are different creations,” Christ said. “From year to year, you never see anything repeated.”
Christ said the students have 2 1/2 to 3 weeks to design and make their traps.
They are encouraged to do the work with their families, she said. “It’s a family activity. One father, just this morning, said he had the best time working with daughter on the trap,” Christ said.
Each class also had the opportunity to tour an authentic leprechaun home, guided by “Mr. Leprechaun” a.k.a. second grader Crosby Stellhorn.
Putney said the house was constructed Thursday morning from large cardboard boxes provided by technology coordinator, Ms. L. Manzella.
The class planned the architectural design of the house, projected images on the walls, traced them and colored them. “My class built this leprechaun house piece by piece,” Putney said. “They helped with every part of this project and Crosby made up his own skit.”
Outside of the gymnasium where the leprechaun house was located, the children lined both sides of the hallway displaying their traps and explaining them as a steady stream of parents and classmates came to inspect them.
The traps were as varied as they were inventive. One trap, created by Jena Natteson, enticed the leprechaun to climb a ladder to the top of a hat where he would fall through a hole, trying to get the gold. “Or it goes under here and it gets stuck in the back,” she said, showing a secret entrance in the brim of the hat.
Ariana Quiles built the Rainbow Inn, which had two means of trapping a leprechaun. A free Lucky Charms breakfast was offered, but a cereal-covered mouse trap awaited the unlucky leprechaun who might take the bait. There was also a sign offering Free Gold at the top of a glittery stovepipe hat, but the crown of the hat was a trap.
Matt Nemec tried to entice the leprechaun to walk under a rainbow path lined with M & M’s and climb a ladder to get the gold, whereupon, he would slip down a slide into a pool of slime and be trapped.
Jackson Stahley built a Lego Bank, complete with police officers outside the doors. “There are garbage cans full of gold inside,” he said. “The leprechaun goes through this door and gets trapped inside.”
There were so many clever traps that it seemed inevitable that the leprechaun would get ensnared. But leprechauns have lived for centuries and the wily fellow at WACS did not get caught this year. Oh well, maybe next year.
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