Hockey Players Visit East Side Freedom Library

January 31, 2020

On January 24, members of the CDH Boys Hockey team took advantage of the day off to visit the East Side Freedom Library for help with their History Day projects.

Sophomores Drew Fisher, Kevin Odlaug, Gabe Rasmussen, Jake Sondreal and Zach Sondreal all visited the ESFL together. They are each working on a History Day project involving sports history.

At the Library, they were greeted by Greg Poferl '64, formerly a CDH social studies teacher and now an ESFL volunteer, and Clarence White, Associate Director of the ESFL.

"They told us about the history of almost every sport— ranging from the first black NHL player to the old segregation problems in the MLB," Fisher said.

"Mr. Poferl and Mr. White sat down with us and went into deep detail regarding each of our projects and how to approach our assignment. We left the library with much more of an idea of what we need to focus on. Not to mention, the next week Mr. Poferl had brought me a printed out copy of a book that we weren’t able to check out while we were at the Freedom Library," Zach Sondreal said.

I highly recommend going to the East Side Freedom Library at least once during the History Day project, as it helped a ton and it was also very fun. Everyone who works there is super nice and helpful, and they are also extremely smart. Most of them are experienced writers and are very educated on the History Day Project. Mr. Poferl and Mr. White taught me on how to find valuable primary sources, how to write a strong paper, and why History Day is important," Fisher said.

According to their website, "The ESFL’s mission is to inspire solidarity, advocate for justice and work toward equity for all. The library houses non-circulating research collections that appeal to interested general learners as well as scholars, with innovative databases and finding aids that make using the collections fun and vital."