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McCurdy Elementary sixth grade student Brett Lantz pushes the button, sending his rocket skyward during the school’s annual Rocket Day event. Watching is classmate Joe Salmeri. For 35 years, former McCurdy sixth grade teacher Charles Feller has come back to the school to oversee the event. This year’s launch was the last one at McCurdy as district sixth graders will go to middle schools next semester.

Sixth grade students at McCurdy Elementary School in the Hazelwood School District had a blast recently – literally. The boys and girls launched rockets constructed of paper towel and toilet paper roll cores.

Armed with their chairs and rockets, the three sixth grade classes trooped out to the back field where they awaited the arrival of a special guest.

The few shady spots filled quickly with spectators from the lower grades as retired McCurdy teacher Charles Feller arrived for his final rocket demonstration. Since the district’s sixth grade students will move from the elementary schools to the middle schools in the fall, this was the final year of rocket launching at McCurdy. Some of the school’s neighbors watched from their back yards.

“It was fun, shooting them up in the air to see how high they would go,” said Terry Wofford. His rocket carried a patriotic theme of red, white and blue. “It went high,” he said of his rocket.

“These are made with recycled materials,” Feller stressed as he set up his equipment. The launch pad is a circle base with a vertical rod to the support the rocket, all mounted on an old, green, three-step ladder. A car battery powers the rockets into flight via a pair of long wires attached to the rocket base. Students initiated the launches by simply pressing a doorbell-like button.

Feller launched his own rocket first, a purple and gold tube longer than the students’ versions. Each rocket, including Feller’s, is designed to break open as it descends and a parachute made out of a sandwich bag pops out to slow its’ fall.

“These are my own design. NASA is envious,” he quipped. Kneeling, he pressed the launch button and his rocket gained altitude quickly. A strong southerly wind that day carried it at least one street over from the school before the rocket faded from view among some large trees.

The students took their turns next. Colored purple, green, all black, black and silver, gold and black, some rockets sailed into neighboring yards and trees while others came down not far from the launch pad, usually into a waiting student’s arms.

“I tried to come up with something for sixth graders that didn’t cost the much money,” he explained. Aside from the paperboard bodies, the students added the engine, plastic nose cones, and fins and painted the exterior.

After a few rockets lifted off, something went wrong in the launch system and the rest of the students had to wait for a day while Feller sorted it out.

“This was not a typical launch,” he said the next day after everyone had a chance to shoot their creations into the sky. “What stays the same are the trial and execution and the whole process of making rockets,” Feller said.

“I liked trying to make the rockets,” said Samantha Ash. “I think my rocket did well,” she said of her pink creation with green baby frogs. “It went one way first then another but it ended up in a tree.”

Feller said he strives to make the experience one the children do not forget.
“I have had kids who have gone through college come back and they tell me, ‘Mr. Feller, I still have my rocket.’ However, I think the launches are a little less entertaining now. Television has come in and the kids expect more these days.”
“Working with the kids, starting from scratch, that’s the fun for me. They ask me, ‘Where did you get this?’ I tell them, ‘I designed it.’ ‘How did you think it up?’” he said.

Out of 35 years, he said rain has only cancelled the launch two or three times, a good record considering the area’s sometimes-unpredictable spring showers.
“The big thing I remember is one year, a teacher launched a rocket nearly in my face,” Feller said. “All she said was, ‘Oops.’”
(story courtesy of Hazelwood District Communications Dept.)
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