Emma Franzeim, Bromfield 2000, has found herself in the spotlight of the Bromfield rock story, having been interviewed by both Fox News and The Boston Globe. In a recent conversation, she wanted to make it clear that she has not been acting only for herself but on behalf of many Bromfield alums who have contributed funds and shown up to help paint the rock. “There was a lot of engagement among alums, more than I even recognize,” said Franzeim.
Further deflecting the attention she has been getting as the “rock girl,” Franzeim said that it wasn’t hard to set up online funding or to show up to watch the painting of the rock. “If it doesn’t take much to do a little good, why can’t we each participate a little more” to do even greater good, she asked.
When Franzeim, who is currently living in Harvard, read about the rock’s defacement on Nextdoor Harvard, she knew immediately she needed to take action, and she reached out to Bromfield seniors, offering her help. Senior Maggie Gill responded first, saying that, yes, they would like some help. Franzeim saw that the obvious first step was to paint over the graffiti on the rock, so she set up a GoFundMe campaign as “something simple I could do” and a way of channeling adult responses into positive energy to help the kids. Mark Spitzer, who was a few years ahead of Franzeim at Bromfield and is currently living in Lancaster, immediately went to Home Depot to buy white paint to cover over what had been washed away of the DPW’s earlier paint job.
Franzeim had no doubt that Bromfield alums would be outraged by the defacing of the rock and that they would see the funding site as a way of showing solidarity. And they did, indeed, come through, with much of the money coming from Bromfield alums.
Front row, from left, Kelly Lilliquist, unidentified alum, Toni Earls, Anthony Morse, Emma Franzeim, Alex Chardo, and Mark Spitzer. Back row, Travis Cosgrave and Bill Nussdorfer. (Courtesy photo)
The people contributing, she said, were from all over, as far away as California and Arizona, and were from a range of Bromfield classes, social groups, and backgrounds. “The messages they sent were the best part,” said Franzeim. After subtracting the processing fee, the site had $1,554.38 with which to purchase high-quality paint in both white and bright rainbow colors, brushes, and rollers. Ten former Bromfield students turned out to help paint over the rock the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Alum power
“I thought having support come from me and other Bromfield alums would be more powerful for the students” than support just from teachers, Franzeim said. “I thought it would be helpful to have us care about it. I was representing a large group of alums.”
In reflecting on why she and other alums felt so strongly about the hateful graffiti on the rock, Franzeim said that teachers at Bromfield had given her and fellow students “a moral compass.” As an alum, she knew that values such as being a good citizen and caring for others have always been part of a Bromfield education, and she said she and other alums “wanted to demonstrate those values we had been taught and pass those lessons on.” It’s not enough to have a good education; you have to act on it, she added.
Franzeim believes those same values are still being taught in the Harvard schools, so it has concerned her that so few students came out to support the repainting of the rock and that only four students showed up this past Saturday to decorate the rock. “How can it be that alums care more about the rock than current Bromfield students? Why weren’t all the seniors there? What were they doing that was more important than coming out and supporting the repainting of the rock?” she mused.
A week ago it seemed simple to know what to do, said Franzeim. “We alums all felt affronted and knew we had to do something. For us it was a no-brainer to do this.”
