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Southold students create fundraiser video for Mother Goose Shoe

Imagine a place where students can read, play and allow their imaginations to run wild.

For Southold School District Superintendent David Gamberg, such a place exists in the form of a 12-foot-tall Mother Goose Shoe.

And now there’s a fundraising effort underway to turn his vision into reality at Southold Elementary School.

To promote the cause, which will benefit the Southold School Educational Foundation, students created a video narrated by Mr. Gamberg explaining the project.

“Understanding that play is at the heart of inquiry and imagination, we have worked to create an environment that allows students a myriad of ways to thoughtfully engage in creative activities,” Mr. Gamberg said, adding the Mother Goose Shoe will instill a love of reading and serve as a connection to classic children’s stories.

The school’s SOHO TV broadcasting class produced the video as part of the foundation’s GoFundMe campaign, which had raised nearly $1,320 of its $28,000 goal as of Tuesday afternoon.

• To donate, visit the foundation’s “Restoring Play to Childhood” page on gofundme.com.

The video was filmed in April when the district celebrated an extended recess, breaking into groups for various activities while high school students and a local aerial videographer captured them at play.

The district plans to add the Mother Goose Shoe to an outdoor “Magical Playscape,” which already includes an amphitheater donated by Peter Castillo, sandboxes, art easels, a life-size chessboard and a garden that not only provides fresh produce for students in the cafeteria, but also acts as an outdoor classroom for science, math and literacy lessons.

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Photo: A conceptual drawing from architect Jake Gamberg.