Within the Urbanna Oyster Festival Queen and Little Miss Spat competition, Caroline Painter and Sophia Watson, along with their peers, have been dedicated to serving their community and making a positive benefit towards it.
Over the course of a few months Caroline and Sophia have put on two large service projects. Each benefit was to raise money for the local Middlesex Elementary School music program. The reasoning behind Caroline’s choice of this service project is that she and Sophia both have a passion for music. After talking with Mrs. Shannon, Caroline found out the majority of the school did as well.
When Caroline was little, music was a big part of her life. She got her first guitar when she was 5 years old for her birthday. Her father, Michael Painter, was in a local band ever since she could remember and he has influenced her to partake in music. Caroline says music is an outlet for personal expression, and just an escape from the world around you or to be within the world around you. That’s the good thing about music, you can make it what you want, she said.
Before the service project was confirmed in Caroline’s eyes, she wanted to make sure the organization needed supplies or more funding. She scheduled a time to meet with Mrs. Shannon. Caroline speaks passionately about how it is not community service when the community does not need a service when only you think it does. A community will not benefit from a service done to it that it feels it does not need.
On May 31, Caroline executed her first service project fundraising event. Prior to the event, flyers were put up in several local locations for homemade box lunches. Each lunch contained a choice of a freshly made chicken salad wrap or handcrafted Italian hoagie on fresh baked sub rolls, choice of chips, an apple, and one homemade brownie. There was a large response and sales were high. Each lunch was $8.
Caroline and Sophia’s second event consisted of putting on a concert open to the public at Bethpage Camp-Resort outside of Urbanna. Local artists agreed to volunteer their time to come out and perform for the cause. There was a total of five acts. Sophia and Caroline played on stage together and it could not have gone better! Food was pre-made and sold at the concert. There was a big turnout for the concert and food. To enter the concert the admission fee was $5. Food was priced separately.
Caroline is a senior at Christchurch School. She has lived and learned in Middlesex County her entire life. She enjoys playing music, learning and trying new things, and her favorite subjects in school are history and humanities. She has been a part of the Unity Council at Christchurch for two years and this year she is the co-president of the council. The council is designed to ensure all race, ethnic groups, genders or gender identities are represented and also to represent what it means to be an ally of any group of people. Kindness is the backbone of the Unity Council. The important skills of acceptance and support in a community that is larger than Christchurch School is the goal of the Unity Council.
With the heart of kindness and protection of others that Caroline possesses, she said it has influenced her to consider pre-law. She has been exploring her options for college and she likes the University of Richmond and Randolph-Macon College. Caroline has also been looking and going through the process of joining the Army National Guard.
Caroline has been a part of her school’s Ambassador Program for four years. This group is focused on making the Christchurch community better in many aspects. Ambassadors are leaders in the community. Caroline was also an ambassador at St. Clare Walker Middle School in grades 6-8, although it was slightly different there. The goal there was an ambassador was selected as a person that may be a bystander in a situation and they must choose to stand up and do the right thing.
Caroline was a part of the JV cheer team, JV basketball, and JV softball for Middlesex her 8th grade year. When she went to high school at Christchurch she began volleyball, then varsity basketball, and varsity soccer. Her sophomore year she moved up onto the varsity volleyball team. She has been playing the same three sports her entire high school career and plans to continue in the winter and the spring with varsity basketball and varsity soccer.
Caroline was also selected as one of four out of 216 of her classmates to attend a leadership conference located in Nashville, Tennessee. The leadership conference was titled “Student Diversity Leadership Conference” or SDLC. At SDLC you are taught not only to be a great leader but how to take what you are taught back to your own community. One of the first training sessions there was called peer facilitation. In this training, one was taught how to direct a conversation toward another person, and to get them to talk while you are focused on leading the conversation. Another big part of SDLC focused on diversity, mainly directed toward people of color. “People not of color were taught how to be an ally toward them,” said Caroline.
Music has been Caroline’s number one inspiration as she has grown. Caroline continues to try different things and can play multiple different things (some better than others, she says). As Caroline recalls on her own time at Middlesex Elementary School, the music department was always a place for inspiration, but even then she wished there was enough of one instrument for everyone to have one to play. Hopefully, the money that is contributed to the music program at MES now allows for a better experience and a richer educational experience for kids now. Studies have shown that music education improves test scores and improves one’s IQ. Also there are countless studies about how music is healthy for a person, physically and mentally.
Caroline is the daughter of Haley Cardwell and Michael Painter. Her spat, Sophia Watson, is the daughter of Amber Collier and Aaron Watson. Sophia enjoys ballet, soccer, dancing and playing t-ball. She wants to be an animal doctor when she grows up.
