Whiz Kid: Kelsey Lombard

The Swampscott High School class of 2014 has not had to make a change on the group’s stationery listing the president of the class since 2007, because Kelsey Lombard has been the choice of her classmates since she was in fifth grade.

“I enjoy running for office at school, I like to meet people and find out what kinds of things they need and how we can make our class better,” Lombard said. “When I started running for class president, I really needed to improve on my public speaking skills, and listening too, so that’s what I’ve done.”

“I’m very grateful that my class thinks that I have what it takes to be president and I’ll work my hardest to be a good class president,” Lombard said.

Lombard and the Class of 2014 just knocked their most recent fundraiser right out of the park with “A Taste of Swampscott,” a fundraiser for the class held at the high school with over 20 shops and restaurants from around town and the area, displaying and serving up their menu items.

“It was great, very nerve-wracking though,” Kelsey said. “When I was on the floor looking around five minutes before the event started, and there were hardly any people there, I was nervous, absolutely,” Lombard said.

“It’s like before a big race, before you get going there are butterflies, for sure,” Lombard said. "We had over 30 volunteers from our class and they worked really hard at making "A Taste of Swampscott" a success, hundreds of people came."

"When the Taste event got going and people started filing in it was great, I was so excited,” Kelsey said. “We worked so hard to get the event going, and when it was over we had raised several thousand dollars for the class.”

Fifteen year-old Kelsey lives on Burke Drive with her mom and dad, and her younger brother Kevin.

Kelsey helped out as the official score-keeper for her dad’s baseball team, the Yankees, during the Swampscott Little League season, and was on the cross-country team this past season.

“I ran cross-country this fall, but had to stop early in the season,” Lombard said.  “I had a knee injury and it was too tough to run, I want to run in the spring, but if I can’t, I’m going to try out for the sailing team,” Lombard said. "I have a passion for sailing, I participate in the town's sailing program in the summer."

No sooner had the receipts been counted up for A Taste of Swampscott, then Kelsey and her classmates were hard at work getting their next class fundraiser up and running.

The SHS class of 2014 will put on a “Babysitting Day” at the high school on Saturday, December 10, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m, the fee is $20.

“Parents can drop their kids off in the morning and go out and shop or take care of what they need to do to get ready for the holidays,” Lombard said. “The high school has donated the rooms and we’ll have crafts and games, I know how much I love shopping, but here we’ll be looking after kids so their parents can do their holiday shopping.”

This Christmas season, Lombard will be volunteering for the TLC program, Toys for Local Children, a group that gets and nicely wraps holiday gifts for youngsters that need help in the area.

“It’s wonderful, I enjoy helping so much, you feel good when you do things for others, Kelsey said.

Lombard is not only the class president, she’s the host of  “Today in Swampscott” that airs on channel 40 on the Verizon system, and on channel 15 on the Comcast cable system, as part of the high school TV curriculum.

“We do a new show every two weeks or so, the reruns air throughout the day on the two cable channels, it’s very exciting to put together a good show,” Kelsey said.

Kelsey said her friends Haley McDevitt and Michelle LaConte have been huge assets in her campaigns and getting her TV show ready for air.

“It’s very exciting to put these things together and help our class make money to help pay for our yearbooks, our proms, graduation and the senior banquet to just name of a few of the things that benefit,” Lombard said. "I'm in the TV class at school, and really enjoy English and History too."

Kelsey said she enjoys working with people, and loves being involved in community service, and in the service of her classmates.

“When I ran for president, I used Facebook and Twitter a little but, but I believe the reason I won was because I worked hard to connect with people personally and did my best to deliver good speeches when I was running for office,” Kelsey said. "I had some great signs too!"

Lombard and her fellow class officers and members of the student council are excited about Babysitting Day.

"Parents pay 20 dollars for four hours of excellent baby-sitting services to help a good cause," Kelsey said.

“Parents can drop off their kids from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., we’ll have arts and crafts, games and people from Curious Creatures with interesting animals there to entertain the kids,” Lombard said.

"We raised $7,200 from A Taste of Swampscott for our class, and we're hoping to raise more on Babysitting Day to help fund all of our class projects."