Stella Jewell, 8-year-old Detroit author, wants a neighborhood park 'everyone' can use

Standing at 50 inches tall, Stella Jewell, 8, already is proving that she is more than big enough to make a sizable impact within her school and her community.

And this summer that impact is being made through the 30-plus colorful pages that form “Parks Are for Everyone!,” written and illustrated by Stella, a rising third grader at The James and Grace Lee Boggs School, 7600 Goethe St., on Detroit’s east side.

Donors supporting a fundraiser to build Boggs Park — a “park and playscape designed to prioritize nature, art, rest and play” — have an opportunity to receive Stella’s book in digital or print form. In addition to serving the Boggs School community, the planners of the future park intend for it to be universally accessible to encourage usage by the surrounding community and beyond.

“A park is a great chance to meet new friends,” said a smiling Stella, who made new friends as a second grader at Boggs while serving as a reporter and editor for a school publication. “And we have people in our community who feel like they don’t have anywhere to go, so the park will help them get out of the house and move around.”

During a stretch of the afternoon on June 28, within her home located in the Virginia Park neighborhood, Stella was indeed on the "move," as she kicked around a soccer ball with gusto; displayed hand drawings that appear in her book, and read from her book, which appeared to be the only time when sitting brought her joy. And every so often during this flurry of activity, Stella would use special words like "inclusion," "collaboration," "creativity" and "self-determination" to explain the motivation behind her actions, including why she chose to use her free time to write a book.

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Stella's actions and words come as no surprise to the people who know her best, including Julia Putnam, principal of the Boggs School, which is committed to nurturing "creative, critical thinkers" that "contribute to the well-being" of their community.

Putnam can easily relate to students like Stella because she said she can see a part of herself in them. About 30 years ago, about the time Putnam was settling in as a student at Renaissance High School — Class of 1994 — she says she fully understood what was required to get straight A's, and "upward-mobility" had been explained to her a time or two as well. But there was an altogether different kind of skill that she was yearning to share.

"I thought my greatest gifts were my desire to make a difference and my desire to help others," recalled Putnam, who developed an early passion for history and had been inspired by the various civil rights activists she studied. "But I had never really been asked to use those gifts."

That would all change, Putnam says, during the summer before her 11th grade year, when she was among the first teens to sign up for Detroit Summer, a program founded in 1992 by the late James and Grace Lee Boggs, along with others who shared a belief that teens and volunteers had an important role to play in shaping Detroit's future. It was a belief that was heavily connected to vigorous, grassroots activities, as participants were engaged in urban gardening, recycling waste, home repairs, creating public art in spaces in need of a lift and much more, including working alongside community-based initiatives.

It would be accurate to say that the hard work was a labor of love for a young Putnam, because, in fact, she was deeply in love with Detroit and believed that her future should be tied to her city.

"I loved Detroit and as a 16-year-old I learned from the program that I could stay in Detroit and make a difference," the now 47-year-old Putnam said. "Detroit has an incredibly rich history and has made rich contributions to society. And it is still a rich, incredible place to be."

One person who is delighted and grateful that Putnam made a commitment to serve Detroit over the long haul — a commitment that ultimately led to Putnam becoming a co-founder and principal of the Boggs School, opened in 2013 — is Chelsea Jewell, who is now the proud mother of a young author.

"I am just incredibly inspired by the work they do at Boggs," said the soft-spoken Chelsea Jewell, who never stopped smiling during the entire time her daughter was explaining her book on June 28. "Ms. Julia and Ms. Amanda (Rosman, executive director and school co-founder) are amazing. The way they fight for children and for quality education, and their emphasis on social justice and community building, those are the things that I think we need in the future. They both move me to tears on a regular basis at school meetings and events, and I say all the time that I want to be Ms. Julia when I grow up."

As it turns out, the 39-year-old Chelsea Jewell is already engaged in "grown-up" work of her own. A graphic designer, Chelsea does contractual work for a couple of publishers and on several Friday afternoons during the past school year she could be found at the Boggs School participating in a program called "Passions," which allows volunteers from the school's community to share their interests and skills with attentive, eager students who are excited about the subject matter. Chelsea's participation led to the creation of a school yearbook, which she says was sparked by a unique collaboration.

"In the beginning, I was like: 'We can do a book.' And the students were like: 'How about a yearbook?' explained Chelsea Jewell, who took turns with her daughter in showing off pages of the yearbook on June 28. "I was fortunate enough to work with the eighth graders and the second graders and the fifth graders to put the yearbook together. It didn't matter what grade they were in; they all came together. It's really awesome to see second graders working with eighth graders and to see them learn things from each other."

Chelsea Jewell confessed that she has dreamed about writing books with her daughter for many years to come. But Chelsea says Stella's first book will always hold an extra special place in her heart due to the book's connection to the entire Boggs community as a thank you gift for the Boggs Park fundraiser, which is attempting to reach a fundraising goal of $75,000 by July 17 to qualify for a matching grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. As of 3:37 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, the campaign had raised $60,950.

“This park project has been years in the making,” said Chelsea Jewell, whose daughter’s book officially became a thank you gift for the fundraising campaign on June 20. “I think when the project started there was a video that the fourth graders made, and in it they’re talking about why they deserved a park and what they wanted in the park. There has been so much hard work put into the project by so many people and I really want to see them cross the finish line. And I want the kids to see that when we come together and work hard, we can do things like this.”

Shortly after her mom made that statement, Stella Jewell talked a little bit about a soccer game involving the Detroit City FC’s women’s team that she was looking forward to attending later in the day with her father, Taylor Jewell. Stella revealed that she and her dad share a passion for soccer, chess and building elaborate Lego creations. But Stella also made it known that her work in support of the Boggs Park project will not be done until the park is completed and open to her fellow K-8 students at Boggs and their Detroit neighbors representing all ages, learning styles and variations in mobility.

“I’m lucky enough to be in that space so that I can have a park, but you can’t have a new park without paying the price,” said Stella, who earlier in the day called Boggs “the best school in the world.”

Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and lifelong lover of Detroit culture in all of its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at: stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott's stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/.

A school committed to 'thinking beyond what most think is possible'

What: The James and Grace Lee Boggs School, 7600 Goethe St., Detroit

Mission: To “nurture creative, critical thinkers who contribute to the well-being of their communities.”

Origins: After almost six years of conversations at the Detroit home on Field Street of the late James and Grace Lee Boggs — contributors to several major social movements that have taken place in the United States — a group of educators began planning the Boggs School in 2008. After five years of formal planning, the school opened in the fall of 2013 with 30 students in kindergarten through fourth grade. Today, the Boggs School educates students from kindergarten through eighth grade and expects to have 170 students enrolled at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year.

Ongoing school and community initiative: A fundraiser to build Boggs Park, a “park and playscape designed to prioritize nature, art, rest and play,” that will serve students at the Boggs School and the school’s surrounding neighborhood and beyond, is seeking to reach a fundraising goal of $75,000 by July 17 to quality for a matching grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. As of 3:37 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, the campaign had raised $60,950. A video showing Boggs rising third grader Stella Jewell describing her book, “Parks Are For Everyone!” a thank-you gift for donors that contribute to the campaign, can be viewed at The James and Grace Lee Boggs School’s Facebook page at facebook.com/boggsschool/. Donations to the campaign can be made at patronicity.com/boggs. And for additional general information about the Boggs School, go to boggsschool.org.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit author Stella Jewell, 8, fundraising for Boggs Park project