This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Lindsey Chesnut's name.
BY CAMI KOONS
Ms. Chesnut’s fourth grade class filed into the Eudora Elementary school cafeteria wearing prom dresses, firefighter uniforms and fake glasses. The students prepared to showcase Eudora’s historical figures both living and dead in their wax museum.
Lindsey Chesnut said she started the project with her class after the winter break.
“[I’ve] done the wax museum before, but I really wanted to incorporate the Eudora community and educate the students on their town and things that they see every day and just don’t know about, ” she said.
Ben Terwilliger, the executive director of the Eudora Area Historical Society, compiled a list of historical figures the 21 students picked from.
“I wanted the list to include current people as well because history is still occurring, it’s recent,” Terwilliger said. “It’s not just all old, dead people from 150 years ago.”
A handful of the historical figures were able to stop by and surprise the students, including retired fire chief Benny Dean, retired police chief Bill Long, former county clerk Sue Neustifter and Eudora’s first female mayor Ruth Hughs.
Students from the rest of the school filled the cafeteria to interview the wax figures and search for “facts” and “wows” to fill out on their worksheets.
Many parents also showed up to see the students’ hard work. Chesnut said the parents were a great help when it came to costuming.
“My mom bought the dress online and I have her belt and her boots,” said Emree Gabriel. “My mom also bought the hat at Walmart and this necklace is from my grandma. It’s 100 years old.”
Aside from finding period appropriate attire, Chesnut said local research proved to be difficult for the kids, but was a great learning experience.
“So maybe not that quick answer that they’re used to from Google, but really having to go back in history,” she said.
Terwilliger and Chesnut agreed it’s important to study local history and they hope everyone who came to the wax museum learned something new about Eudora.
Reach reporter Cami Koons at eudoratimes@gmail.com.
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