February 28, 2024
By MEALAND RAGLAND-HUDGINS
Rutherford County Schools
Enter the library at Blackman High School on a regular day and you’ll find students working on class assignments or playing chess while they eat lunch.
In the coming weeks, Blaze Library will have a bit of a different vibe as the school’s poetry club hosts a fundraiser for the Murfreesboro Rescue Mission, which is anticipating purchasing land for a new homeless shelter.
Brian Seadorf, a library media specialist at the school, started the club earlier this year with the hopes of having a live event for students to participate in. He has worked with MRM in his own time and built a connection with Ed Grimes, the organization’s founder and executive director.
Murfreesboro Rescue Mission has raised $120,000 of the $150,000 needed for the land purchase, according to its website.
“They’re just about at their goal and we’d like to help give them that last little push. Our goal is $1,000,” Seadorf said.
The “Pie and Poetry” fundraiser is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 12. Admission is $10 per person. Members of the local Poetry in the Boro group and others are expected to share their writing, with Kevin Max of Christian band DC Talk serving as the night’s closer.
BHS culinary students will prepare chocolate pie and those in the agriculture program will help decorate, Seadorf said.
The poetry club is new to BHS this year and has “a solid 10 students” participating. The group meets twice a month.
“So much emphasis is put on how big a group is, but I think with these 10 committed students, we can make a difference,” he added.
Seniors and poetry club member Halli Boatright, Emily Burchard and Lacey Reid have taken the lead in planning the event. Writing, they said, is therapeutic for them.
“It’s helped me better understand my feelings,” Burchard said.
“Everything we do, we share it before we present it. We all have our different thing,” Boatright added. “We don’t assign prompts, you just write what makes you feel comfortable.”
All are considering sharing new work at the event.
“I want to push myself, so I may do something new,” Reid said.
Seeing students open up and be vulnerable with their peers is something Seadorf is proud of.
“Their voices have come out. Reading and writing poetry can be brutal and sharing with each other is hard, but in doing so, some of them have really come out of their shell,” he said.