Fifth Grader
Will Accompany
Big Tree to Washington
By Sandy Vondrasek

Randolph fifth grader Branden Young was selected to accompany the capitol Christmas tree to Washington, D.C. later this month. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

Vermont is sending "an old-fashioned holiday"—including a 65-foot tree and 80 "companion trees"—to the nation’s capitol this year, and 10-year-old Branden Young of Randolph will have a ring-side seat on the excitement.

Branden’s name was drawn from among hundreds of Vermont schoolkids who made ornaments for the "Capitol Tree." At a school assembly Tuesday morning he discovered that he will receive an all-expenses paid trip down to Washington.

He was still flying high a few hours later when The Herald stopped by for an interview.

Branden and all the Randolph Elementary School kids were aware at the assembly, he explained, that one of them had won the statewide drawing.

"I was hoping it was me—and it was," he grinned.

It will be his first trip to Washington, D.C.

The fifth grader will fly down on December 4, with his mom Carrie Young, and art teacher Rebbie Carleton, who were also awarded all-expense-paid trips.

According to Carleton, Branden may even be asked to switch on the lights on the big tree on Dec. 5, along with Speaker of the U.S. House, Nancy Pelosi. He will get to meet the Vermont Congressional delegation and other dignitaries, and go on tours of the White House and other sites.

Planning for all this has been going on for months, with everything shifting into high gear this week. The big tree will be cut tomorrow in the Green Mountain National forest in Bennington, where Gov. Douglas and others will gather on site for the festivities.

Branden’s mom Carrie Young said yesterday that she is trying to arrange her work schedule so she can take her son to tree cutting, so he can have better sense of the entire project. Even transportation is part of the event, as a "caravan" of antique and old-fashioned vehicles will accompany the big tree on its trip to D.C.

(South Royalton residents Paul and David Whitney will be part of the caravan. See next week’s Herald.)

Schools Pitch In

Randolph Elementary School was one of dozens of Vermont schools that fashioned some of the 4000 made-in-Vermont decorations for the Capitol Tree.

Art teacher Carleton, who learned about the "Vermont Brings an Old-Fashioned Holiday to the Capitol" project last spring, took the project under her wing. She fashioned a comprehensive project with a "Peaceable Kingdom" theme for the entire school.

Students started early in the school year with an art history lesson on "The Peaceable Kingdom" paintings of 19th-century American folk artist Edward Hicks.

Carleton noted that Hicks did dozens of versions of the theme, all featuring lions and lambs, and other creatures, lying together, usually with a young child safely in their midst.

Hicks was from Pennsylvania, and many of his paintings also depict, in the background, William Penn meeting with the Lenape tribes from the region. Hicks was celebrating Penn’s desire to build a "new society" that respected everyone, Carleton explained.

Students, working collaboratively, went on to design and create "Peaceable Kingdom" ornaments for the Capitol Tree, using cardboard bases and modeling clay to build up the forms of lions, cheetahs, lambs, and oxen.

The decorations, Carleton said, "are our gift to the nation."

And this being a Rebbie Carleton project, the students also entered the ornaments in the Tunbridge Fair, where the school took a blue ribbon for "School Crafts."

And, because Randolph Elementary was the first school to complete its ornaments, the project was featured last month on a WCAX-TV segment,as a way to encourage other schools to join in.

Meanwhile, it’s been quite the week for Branden Young, who just happened to celebrate his 10th birthday Monday—on a school holiday—and who came back on Tuesday to find he was heading to Washington, D.C. in just three weeks.