Each year the National History Day society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating history, operates a project-based contest for students in grades six through twelve across the country in local, statewide, and national competitions. This year, two Henley Middle School students, Celeste Ide and Adlee Bullard, clinched the top spot in the Virginia History Day junior performance category with their project titled “Edwin Chadwick and the Report of 1842: An Unlikely Hero’s Fight for Better Sanitation.” The duo is now gearing up to compete in the upcoming round of the National History Day competition scheduled for June 9-13 at the University of Maryland, College Park.
The National History Day project program originally began as a small contest in the Midwest in the 1970s as a way to make learning history a fun and engaging experience for students and teachers alike. Over the decades, the program has evolved to reach all fifty states, all with their own statewide competitions and more than half a million students participating annually. Students select historical topics related to a theme and conduct extensive primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews and historic sites. Projects initially compete at local and state levels, with the top entries advancing to the next round, taking on the form of an exhibit, documentary, website or, in this case, a performance.
Ide and Bullard, now rising seventh graders at Henley, harbored a keen interest in participating in the Virginia History Day competition to blend their love for history and performing arts. Intrigued by the story of Edwin Chadwick, an English social reformer, and his advocacy for public health, the pair chose him as the subject of their project after coming across a video clip detailing his endeavors.
Ide’s and Bullard’s play tells the story of Edwin’s fight for better sanitation in the poverty-ridden parts of England during the early 1800s. Chadwick is credited for being one of the first reformers to make a connection between poor sanitation and the outbreaks of fatal disease in urban environments. The girls play each of the characters in the story themselves, undergoing various costume and prop changes over the course of their ten-minute performance, and telling the story of Chadwick’s fight for better health standards.
“We have always enjoyed learning about unseen heroes in history,” Ide said. “After we heard about Edwin Chadwick and began our research, we learned that he fought for better sanitation standards for the poor his whole life and never got the recognition that he deserved. I thought the best way to thank him was to do our project about him.”
Preparation for the Virginia History Day competition is no easy feat. The girls spent months researching, writing, and practicing their performance, with their play script undergoing countless revisions leading up to the statewide competition in April.
“We began the process in the fall of last year,” Bullard explained. “There was a very long research period while working on the paper and bibliography and then the play-making process began. After that, we practiced almost every day and won first place at districts and then immediately began preparing for states. We spent weeks working and revising, trying to paint a bigger background.”
Their dedication to the project extended beyond school hours, with Ide and Bullard undertaking it as an extracurricular activity. Nonetheless, the girls are grateful for the support they’ve been shown by faculty in the Albemarle County school system, with many of their current and former teachers coming by to watch their after-school practice performances and offering their feedback. The Henley front office staff also allowed the girls to use the cafeteria stage after school to practice. Ide and Bullard are also grateful to their parents for all the help they’ve given throughout the preparation process.
All of the work that they have put into their project has been done in their spare time. While some schools sponsor National History Day competition efforts in different states, this was an extracurricular activity for the two of them.
They also say that their success would not be possible without the help of their friend and honorary third team member Elin Rudzinski. While she was unable to compete at the district competition, she helped the girls immensely with making props, memorizing the script, and supporting them at states.
When asked about the message they hope their project conveys, the girls emphasized their desire for viewers to appreciate privileges they often take for granted, and to remember that so much of what we have comes from people we do not know.
“Edwin did a lot of work and deserved more credit than he was given, and did so many important things people don’t know about,” Bullock said. “The poor in England had horrible sanitation, and I hope people realize how grateful we should be for what we have with sanitation today.”
Ide was in agreement with Bullock, and also hopes their project draws attention to the sacrifices that reformers have made in the past that better our living standards today.
“I hope that when people watch our play, they will see Edwin Chadwick’s many sacrifices,” Ide said. “I hope that they will see that Edwin fought for something that others saw as worthless. We hope this will inspire people to fight for a good cause, even if that means they must stand alone.”
As they gear up for the national competition in Maryland in June, we wish them luck for their continued successes!
