Though our McLean Highlander Special Olympics basketball team came out behind the White Oak Panthers, the spirit that filled our gymnasium for FanFest was supportive every bit as much as competitive. As one of our students put it after the buzzer: “I know we lost, but I feel like we won too.”

Throughout the game, those parents, teachers and friends watching carefully were gifted with vignettes of unexpected affection and respect. A player-coach collision that might have started a brawl in the NBA ended up as a hug on this basketball battlefield. An opposing player rebounding a free throw tossed the ball back to the thrower, deciding it would be nice if she had a second chance.

As you’d expect, the Work Study Word was seriously covering FanFest, but without a lot of journalistic objectivity. After all, most of the reporters were busy running up and down the court, defending and rebounding, taking shots at the basket. We asked the staff members who played to give us their news report all the same.

BEN SHUE

I was proud to play in the game. There were cheerleaders who were cheering for the McLean Highlanders. I wished I could make 48 points at FanFest, but that will be next year. I was so excited that I scored a basket. The motto is, “I’ll let you win, or you let me win.” There was also a Daniel King memorial service. But I was so excited to see Adonis Friend and Ben Smith. I also wished that I got the MVP award and felt proud. Next basketball season, I will be Michael Jordan because I want to be a basketball god. My dream goal in basketball is being drafted by the NBA so I get to hang out with other NBA players. I really want to meet Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.

ABBY CRISWELL

The best part about FanFest was that my mom and her boyfriend Jim were cheering me on during the game. I also liked the part where my mom and I were dancing during break time. What was really fun was I got to score a basket, helped out the team and got to see some people that I haven’t seen in a long time. Someone came to watch me play from Longfellow, where I went to middle school. I think FanFest is good for students because people can cheer them on. The students are helping out their team while they are having fun.

JOHN SURINGA

It was a night to remember. I had a lot of friends cheering me on. It’s always cool when the announcer calls out the names of the players. Although we didn’t win, I found a way to enjoy the game. In my opinion, FanFest is the grand finale or the grand prix from Speed Racer. After seeing FanFest in 2017 and playing in 2018 and 2019, I know I’ve changed our students lives and their perspectives on me. I hope that 40 years from now, that still will be going strong.

MICHAEL SHANK

Right before the game we all lined up so we could run out onto the court and give Mr. Thompson and Coach Payne a high five. The best part of the game was all the cheering – for us to win, for us to shoot a basket, for us to score a three-point shot, something that happened several times. Posters on the wall are also cool, as are people taking lots of pictures with all of us players after the game is over. My voice was hoarse because I was cheering the team on.

JACOB DeVORE

I liked how I was able to play with my friends and play as a team. I liked when Robbie made a basket because Peter passed him the ball, making it a real team effort. Trevor also made a basket after Abby passed the ball to him. Maia and Juan made baskets too. Teamwork means not being a ball hog, working together to score baskets. I got to pass the ball onto the court to start the action, tossing it to Jack Dennis. I like how my brother Mark was pushing my wheelchair because he was helping me. I enjoyed the crowd cheering and the music playing. Although we lost the game, I still had a great time because I was with my friends.

TREVOR SHEEHAN

My friend Ben Smith came to watch us play, and so did his dad. Adonis came too, and we were happy to see him. I pushed Jacob in his wheelchair. All the time we were there, I tried to shoot baskets, but I missed. Ben Shue’s brother Tom came to watch us play. He and I shook hands and my mom gave him a hug. We didn’t win but we did our best.

Our own Work Study Word team has compiled and sent McLean High School’s entry in the Great Mail Race, an unofficial and thoroughly grassroots effort to establish communication among Special Ed programs across the country.

Taking the form of a questionnaire asking about likes and dislikes, the Great Mail Race invites each school to fill out a form, create a description of itself and its larger community, and to send that to as many as 50 other schools. Our students did the research to locate schools, compiling the mailing addresses for sending our questionnaire.

Within about a week, we received responses from two very different schools in two very different places – Sulphur High School in Sulphur, La., and Delaware Valley High School in Milford, Pa. The Louisiana response was most interesting for its listing of favorite foods, virtually all famous Cajun dishes like boiled crawfish, gumbo and etouffee.

The Pennsylvania response was notable for its eclectic collection of famous people from the state: James Buchanan, Will Smith, Milton Hershey and Daniel Boone. The third name on that list became the first and only name for “something interesting about the state.” “Home of Hershey,” the kids wrote, “chocolate capital of the world.”

Symbolic of our connected times, answers to many questions seemed the same wherever you go – movies, TV, books and music, for instance. Specific to each school, however, were the field trips Special Ed students are able to take. The Milford students spoke highly of trips to Walmart, apple picking and the Stroud Beauty Institute.

Here’s what McLean students submitted to schools to spread The Great Mail Race:

Here’s the drill. Your Special Ed class should complete this questionnaire, describe your school and your community, and mail that information to 50 other Special Ed departments around the country. Have the kids find the mailing addresses of school online if possible, and put “Special Ed” in each mailing address, so this can reach the right people. It’s educational and it’s fun! 

We are:

McLEAN HIGH SCHOOL

1633 Davidson Road

McLean VA 22101

COMMUNITY PROFILE

What we know as McLean is built around our larger neighbor less than 10 miles away, the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C. Our incomes, personalities and conversations are closely aligned to the workings of government and the politics that affect those workings. We are especially close to the nearby Pentagon, as well as to the CIA based in Langley.  Other northern Virginia communities include Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax, with two airports (Reagan National and Dulles International) connecting us with the entire world.

McLean itself is quite affluent, and has been since the revolution that separated the United States from Great Britain. It is the third most prosperous community in the country, with a median income of more than $190,000. Housing costs are high, with average prices of $908,000. Schools such as McLean High, which has about 2,300 students, are part of the respected Fairfax County Public School system. There are many restaurants in and around McLean, plus the Tyson’s Corner development for shopping, dining and entertainment. 

WHAT WE LIKE

FOODS: McDonald’s, Chipotle, Steak and Asian Hot Pot, Pizza, Ice Cream, Spaghetti, Chicken, Salmon

MOVIES:  The Grinch, Bohemian Rhapsody, Home Alone, Inside Out, the Lion King, Frozen, Avengers: Infinity War, Jurassic World, How to Train Your Dragon 3, Captain America: Civil War, SpiderVerse, Monsters Inc.  

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES: Basketball, Music, Christmas Parade and Reindeer Dog Parade, Hiking, Fishing, Swimming

TV SHOWS: Amazing Race, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, SpongeBob, Fairly OddParents, Double Dare, Modern Family, Glee,  Family Guy, The Simpsons

BOOKS: States, Star Wars, Smithsonian Books of Natural History, Nancy Drew mysteries

MUSIC: Ashley Tisdale, Harry Connick Jr., Bobby Vinton, Barry Manilow, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Air Supply, Queen, Nightcore, Aerosmith

FAMOUS VIRGINIANS: Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Lighthorse Harry Lee, Richard Henry Lee, Robert E. Lee, Ella Fitzgerald,

TOURIST ATTRACTIONS: Washington, D.C., Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, Mt. Vernon, Monticello, Shenandoah Valley

Mark Thompson, department chair for Special Ed at McLean, enjoys the work he’s been doing, in one capacity or another, for almost 35 years. Still, he’s not sure he’s 100% sold on the phrase at the heart of his job title.

“We say Special Ed, or Special Needs,” Mr. Thompson told our Work Study Word staff during a group interview, “but we could give every single person on earth a title based on something. This world needs everybody, and everybody’s just as important as everybody else.”

Mr. Thompson fielded a spirited array of student questions, from where was he born (Yokohama, Japan, in 1961) to what’s his favorite restaurant (Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse) to does he like pets (yes, especially dogs). But he seemed most engaged talking about the work he does on students’ behalf regular day to regular day. After all, he pointed out with a grin, his 16 years at McLean mean he’s been walking through this building longer than members of its freshman class have been alive.

That birth in Japan was a function of his father’s work in the United States Coast Guard. As a “military brat,” he moved every three years for big pieces of his life. Most of the places weren’t as exotic, however – New Jersey, Miami, New London, Conn. (home of the Coast Guard Academy) and finally several places in Virginia. Mr. Thompson earned his bachelor’s degree at Washington & Lee, following that with a master’s from Johns Hopkins.

If his favorite part of McLean life is working with students, whether in his administrative capacity or as a classroom teacher, he also appreciates the opportunity to get to know parents. This he does a bit better and more often than most Regular Ed teachers, who often see mothers and fathers only once a year on Parents Night. If then.

Mr. Thompson’s initial work in schools was as an “adaptive behavior” specialist, which he describes as teachings kids appropriate social skills and how to interact with others. Along the way, he developed an understanding of what many of the challenges of his students today are, whether in the classes he teaches (math, life skills, sometimes U.S. and Virginia history, government) or in the Work Study workplace. Life skills is probably his favorite subject to teach, he says, because it can take in almost anything he or his students are interested in on any given day.

“It’s a rich curriculum,” he says.

Away from his life at McLean, Mr. Thompson shares a home in Loudon County (in South Riding, to be precise) with his wife Stacie – seen in the photo with him above – and 13-year-old son Jack, who will himself be starting high school near their home next fall. The department chair enjoys playing golf and coaching kids sports, especially basketball, baseball and lacrosse, and, for a much-needed escape, reading action adventure fiction by Clive Cussler and other authors like him.    

Mr. Thompson was asked to serve as McLean’s Special Ed department chair with the retirement of Rita Kuntz. With his brand of humor the students and teachers know well, he downplays his own knowledge of many things and emphasizes the tricks he’s learned for successful living over the decades. It’s a process with a single, simple goal, really: helping students.

“I hope they tell me their problems,” he says. “I don’t know all the answers, but I almost always know who to ask. I think I’ve made a career of knowing who to ask.”   

When one of our students asked Mr. Thompson what he does to inspire kids at McLean, he stopped, pondered, and said he’d never actually been asked that or thought about it specifically before.

“I let the students know that pretty much anything you want to do, if you put your mind to it, you can probably make it work,” he says. “What I think I do well is create opportunity. I don’t shut doors. This world needs workers, so be the best worker you can be. One of my favorite sayings is: All ships are safe in the harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”

Today our Work Study Word journalism class paid a visit to McLean’s Student Services department, a part of the main building where kids can speak with counselors about school issues, personal issues, or both at the same time. And then we wrote about what we saw and heard and learned.

We were invited by school counselor Kathleen Otal, who spoke with us recently in our journalism lab. After talking some more with Ms. Otal (and petting her stuffed associates Theo the dog and Sandy the dolphin), we also enjoyed office visits with counselors Greg Olcott, pictured here fielding student questions, and Brook Dalrymple.

“When you don’t know how to ask for help,” Mrs. Dalrymple told us, “I like helping you guys have a voice.”

Conducting the interviews were students Abby Criswell, Michael Shank, Jacob Devore, John Suringa, Trevor Sheehan, Ben Shue and Sidney Wu. We want to thank all the counselors we interviewed, and all the ones we didn’t, for their hard work helping us day after day.

Tucked away behind the sign promising Student Services, McLean’s eight school counselors help students with a wide array of challenges, both academic and personal.

From planning the future to dealing with strife at home, disagreements in class and even the loss of loved ones, counselors may indeed have heard it all – at least until the next unique student pops his or her head in through the door. After nearly 23 years of counseling students – 19 at Brookfield Elementary and going on four here at McLean – Kathleen Otal wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I get to help students when they are sad or worried or stressed out,” she explained during a visit to our work study journalism class. “I can talk to them and help them feel better. I can also sometimes help their parents, especially when they are having trouble getting their kids to study. I often say: School is their job, and you have to work before you can play. Some parents don’t seem to know that.”

There’s a lot that parents don’t know, and a lot students don’t know either. For that matter, there are things even an excellent counselor doesn’t know. But a thoughtful one can ask questions and offer suggestion that just might make a big difference.

“I think of myself as a helper,” Ms. Otal says.

McLean students are assigned a counselor based on the first letter of their surname. Students can call or email their counselor with a request to talk during this or that period on this or that day, or sometimes the request comes directly from parents. The counselor then will suggest a get-together.

The Student Services area and its staff strive to make their hive of offices a friendly, positive place. Their plan must be working, since at several times each day (Highlander, for instance) students gather there among backpacks and lunch kits, producing a pleasant mix of study hall, music festival and campsite.

According to Ms. Otal, the road to serving as a counselor is a lot like many other roads, involving earning a college degree, probably pursuing graduate studies and serving an internship at an actual school. In her case, it meant growing up in Buffalo, New York, completing her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the College of William and Mary, and then completing a master’s in counselor education at Virginia Commonwealth University

Early on, she taught first grade in McAllen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley near the Mexican border. The respect she feels for the teachers here at McLean is immense, no doubt deepened by knowing something of the challenges they face each day.

“You have to work hard, like with anything in life,” she says. “But if you like what you do, it never really feels like work.”

A lot of kids Ms. Otal counsels chat with her about music and movies, and she understands that they are hoping to establish a connection every bit as much as she is. She says she likes almost any style of popular music from reggae to ‘80s to classic rock (“except maybe country”). She tends to dislike movies that are violent or scary. Her alltime favorite: “When Harry Met Sally.”

Ms. Otal prefers to read books before she goes to see the movies based on them, picturing the people and scenes for herself, and usually ends up preferring the book. One exception, however, should spark a lot of conversations. She enjoyed reading the Harry Potter books but enjoyed watching the movies almost as much, being thrilled to see how the dragons and monsters were created as special effects for the screen.

“Seeing them play quidditch was super-super cool,” says Ms. Otal.

Though she started her career working with very young students, she is now quite happy hearing of joys and sorrows from students in high school, not to mention helping them define and achieve important goals for future education and employment.

“I was always seeing kids excited about their first day of school as they started kindergarten,” the counselor says. “Now I’m excited to see kids on their last day of school as they graduate.”

Earlier in his law enforcement career, Officer Scott Davis seldom met people except when something bad was happening – either to them or because of them. That’s why six years ago he started spending his days at McLean High School.

As our School Resource Officer, Officer Davis has a special name for all the students and teachers he serves and protects. He calls us his friends.

“The most difficult part of my job here,” he told our work study journalism class during a visit, “is when people think they know me when they don’t, maybe because of something they’ve seen on TV. They have their minds made up that I’m mean or bad. I love interacting with our students and letting them know I really care.”

A native of Manassas, Officer Davis wanted to join the police force from the time he was a little boy, having seen the good things police can do in popular television programs. He started training as a policeman as soon as he was old enough and spent 15 years as an officer “on the street” – day shift, night shift, even a shift starting at midnight – in Reston and Herndon before coming here.

While he found early satisfaction patrolling in a Fairfax County Police uniform, he felt something was missing – something even his much-loved daughter and son couldn’t quite supply. It was time, he decided, to become a Highlander.

“It’s hard to build a rapport with people when you don’t see them every day,” he explains, comparing his past to his happier present. “You don’t really know if you’re helping anybody out. Here I recognize that every day.”

Officer Davis is employed by the county police department, and he’s here at McLean Monday through Friday during school hours as his fulltime assignment. He can also be spotted at our athletic events, day proms and other special functions, a bit extra on top of his regular schedule.

As many probably guess, when Officer Davis was younger he played basketball (he’s very tall), football and soccer, and he still plays and coaches a bit, especially for his own kids’ teams. He enjoys watching sports as a fan in his free time, specifically (good times and bad) the NFL’s Washington Redskins.

Day by day, most Highlanders notice only Officer Davis’ ready smile and hear only his encouraging voice. Yet the fact that he carries a handgun on his belt and wears a bulletproof vest should be a reminder that he is here at McLean to protect us. He stresses that tragedies like school shootings are not new, yet the professionalism of police response keeps improving from each sad experience.

Officer Davis has taken special classes to help him be the officer we need when we need him, even as he’s the first to hope and pray that no one ever does.

As a closing chapter of 2018, our Work Study Word staff decided to take a look at the year ahead. And since it’s the right time of year for such things, we decided to go public with our wishes for 2019.

TREVOR SHEEHAN

My wish for 2019 is for my father and I to go on a photo safari in Africa. We’ve always wanted to do that together. We would wear safari uniforms and safari hats, and we would ride on a Jeep with tourists. We would take pictures and videos of all the animals we see. We would go to Tanzania because my dad knows so much about Tanzania. We will see Mount Kilimanjaro and take pictures of it too. We might see a cheetah run very fast. Maybe we’ll see baboons grooming each other. We may see a pride of lions too. We’ll have a great time going on a photo safari. I’m excited to do it!

JOHN SURINGA

For next year, here are some goals. 1. Find a job I like. I know that before I know it, I’ll be graduating high school, and I think before that, people will be looking for me to have some work experience, so that my future is bright. 2. Get more into girls. 2018 was big for me, because I had my first girlfriend. By the time I’m a junior, which will be 2019, I’ll probably have more affection and care for girls of all teen ages. The teen years are always the fun years of my life. 3. Become even better as a guitarist – so that for the rest of my life I could have a career as a guitarist recording songs with people I love. 4. Find times to study. In my opinion, whatever you give out, it will come back to you.

JACOB DeVORE

In 2019 I want to be in more plays. I enjoy memorizing lines and acting. Changing into costumes is a lot of fun, like in A Christmas Carol; we changed into hats and other costumes. Christmas Carol was a lot of fun. My parents came to the play at nighttime and they liked it. I was very happy when they came, and I hope they come to my other plays. I can’t wait for next year!

ABBY CRISWELL

My wish for 2019 is that my mom’s dad would get better from cancer. My grandfather is in hospice in Georgia, and he might die soon. My family had to speak loud over the years because he didn’t protect his ears around loud things, which caused him not to hear anymore, and he also broke his hip when he fell off his bike. He is 80 years old and has a lot of siblings. My favorite memory of him is him talking about his childhood, and when he shows pictures of me and my mom when we were little kids. He says the doctors didn’t know he was coming until he was born, but after that he lived a happy life.

MICHAEL SHANK

What I’m looking forward to in 2019 is the Spring BBQ in the Library Courtyard for rising freshmen next year. I am also looking forward to Fanfest on March 23. I will play my first basketball game right before school starts after Winter Break. I want to watch the Super Bowl on that Sunday in February on CBS.

BEN SHUE

In 2019, I’m looking forward to going to see four movies about action, adventure and super heroes. Captain Marvel is coming out March 8, and it’s a fantasy/adventure film. Avengers 4: Endgame is coming out April 26. There will be shocking events in the movie after the events of Infinity War. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is coming out Feb. 8. It is a fantasy/action film. And Spider-Man: Far from Home is coming out July 5, a fantasy/science fiction film. I like movies that have action in them, and Spider-Man is my idol. I’m going to change the future to stop crime and get people’s trust and respect.

After four performances of Ebenezer’s Christmas Carol in McLean’s Black Box Theatre, some Work Study cast members accepted rides back to their dressing rooms from anyone who was willing, as above. Other students stood around a long time, gathering hugs, kisses, flowers and compliments from proud family and friends.

• 

Directed by Work Study theater teachers Jessica Berns and Caroline Sumlin, the play was a shortened version of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, a story told many times since being published in the 1840s but seldom with more conviction or holiday spirit. For one scene, program leaders Mark Thompson and Anna Southworth joined the kids onstage.

Along the way, students in the cast got the chance to watch videos of their performance and make suggestions for their own improvement. It’s a safe bet the memories of Ebenezer’s Christmas Carol, and hopefully its message, will last even longer than YouTube. 

Some of our students are working hard to decorate Ms. Sumlin’s classroom with several creative works that celebrate our differing holiday traditions, as pictured below. Yet in the Work Study journalism class, we are looking around the present, plus backwards and forwards in time, for the true meaning of this festive season. Here’s a bit of what we are thinking and feeling.

ABBY CRISWELL 

My favorite Christmas memory is that, when I was a little girl, I had a party at my elementary school in Vidalia, Ga. I was probably six or seven years old. My classmates and I bought presents for our parents from special tables set up for us, and then we all wrapped those presents and put them under the Christmas tree at home. When I saw my parents and other family members opening these presents on Christmas morning, it made me happy. I got my dad a special tool kit, and my grandparents on my mom’s side some things to bake with. I don’t actually remember what I gave to my mom, but I know she liked the present a lot.

TREVOR SHEEHAN

I have a Christmas wish, and one of the wishes I’ve had has already come true. Earlier this year I wished that a voice actor named Frank Welker would play Max the dog in the new Grinch movie. After all, he played Max in that earlier Jim Carrey movie about the same story. Frank Welker also gives his voice to Curious George, as well as to Scooby Do and Fred. I really want to meet him someday. I also want to meet a voice actor named Jim Cumming, who voices Winnie the Poo and Tigger, and also Jeff Bennett, who is the voice of the Man in the Yellow Hat in Curious George. This Christmas my family and I are going to my uncle’s new house for our Christmas dinner.

JOHN SURINGA

 I really like the cooler weather in December, but for theholidays, I’d really rather be on some tropical island. These are waiting for us in Hawaii, Mexico, Florida and a lot of other places, and it’s always nice to escape the cold weather that so many people seem to love at Christmas. I think warm weather is better, because it lets you go to the beach, go shopping for warmer-weather clothing, and other island-like stuff. During the days I would go swimming in the pool and the ocean with friends.  At the end of the day, I would go out to dinner, watch the sunset, go to a party, or listen to tropical music.  I know that people think of Christmas as snow and ice, but I am quite the opposite.

BEN SHUE

I am going to Richmond on Christmas Eve, going to see family there. We eat a lot at the Richmond house, and there are a lot of traditions. The whole family wears new PJs that our parents give us. The hardest part is always waiting for my parents to wake up Christmas morning, so we can open our presents around our big Christmas tree. One of our traditions is eating peppermint bark at breakfast, which everybody loves. I really like decorating the Christmas tree with my family, and I am going to get cool stuff for Christmas.

SIDNEY WU

I am looking forward to getting gifts from Santa. I am also looking forward to going with my community friends to see two different movies, the new How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Bohemian Rhapsody at the AMC Tyson’s. I am going to ask Santa for a time machine, and when I get it I will go back to January 2011 just in time for New Year’s. I am also looking forward to getting a dip net from Santa and spending time with my family.

MICHAEL SHANK

What I want for Christmas is A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey playing Scrooge, because that’s who I’m playing in our school play. By then the play will be over and we will be on Winter Break. I plan to watch that movie on Christmas Day, maybe at the same time I’m opening my presents. I will decorate the house with my family, so then Santa can come down the chimney and put presents under the tree and fill all of our stockings.

JACOB DeVORE

 I am excited about Christmas because of all the presents.I like to open presents. Music plays a big role in Christmas to me, so I like the holiday best whenever music is playing. Music is always my favorite Christmas memory. This Christmas I’m getting either a game or music. I like to open presents, and I like to watch movies all day. Because I’m a fan of Queen, I hope to see the new movie Bohemian Rhapsody this year during our Winter Break.

Several members of our Work Study family have been rehearsing for weeks to present one of the most beloved stories of any holiday season, a play called “Ebenezer’s Christmas Carol,” in the McLean High School Black Box Theatre Dec. 11-14.

The four student performances with set, props and costumes – two shows in the daytime and two in the evening- are free and open to parents, teachers, family and friends. Tickets to the shows, with limited seating, can be reserved online.

“This is probably the ultimate Christmas story, combining the true spirit of the season with an important message about being kind and generous,” says Work Study teacher Jessica Berns, who is directing the play with teacher Caroline Sumlin. “We might all have a little Scrooge in us once in a while, but after seeing this play performed by our kids, you will join Ebenezer in ‘keeping Christmas all the year.’”

Condensed a bit from the original, the play is based on Charles Dickens’ “ghost story of Christmas” published in England in 1843. The tale of a bitter miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and how his life changes with visits from spirits one Christmas Eve has been told and retold in every media format. Dickens himself, who wrote and published many famous books, traveled and gave public readings of the story up until his death in 1870.

The students performing the roles are excited to share their hard work with all those who attend the performances. According to Michael Shank, who portrays Scrooge, the goal is to communicate the message of Dickens with the story of how visiting spirits help the old man, especially when it comes to how he treats loyal employee Bob Cratchit, his wife and many children.

“It’s easy for me to change while people are watching,” says Michael. “They are seeing all these things that happened to Scrooge, and all the sad things in his past that make him the way he is. In the end, Ebenezer gives the Cratchits presents and a turkey.”

“It’s about how you should treat people kindly,” adds student Abby Criswell, who portrays the Spirit of Christmas Past at the beginning of the show and a peddler near the end. “People can change and share what they have.”

Many members of the “Christmas Carol” cast (Michael and Abby, along with Trevor Sheehan, Jacob Devore and Ben Shue), are writers for this publication, as well as veterans of last year’s two stage productions at McLean,“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Aladdin.”

Rounding out the colorful cast are Marika Bak, Maia Stewart, Kathryn Knight, Polina Leonova, Noor Haag, Jack Dennis, Adrian Guevara, Juan Ramirez, Kendall Lyons and Vishaal Anumandia. The behind-the-scenes tech team for “Christmas Carol” includes Adrian Guevara, Andy Pauliukonis, Bardia Amirian, Jimmy Rivera, Max Wieczorek, Mo Soubra and Pete Connors.  

Public performances in the Black Box are at 1 p.m. Dec. 11 and 12 and at 7 p.m. Dec. 13 and 14. Free tickets to this season’s holiday theater production can be ordered online at  https://bpt.me/3900898