New London — Kindergartners leaned in close for a conversation with city fire lieutenant Jeffrey Rheaume, who sat at their lunch table in the Winthrop STEM Magnet Elementary School cafeteria Monday.

They looked engrossed. What were they discussing?

"There was a lot of penguin talk, actually," Rheaume said as the kids lined up to leave. "I love this age. They're pretty excited about everything."

Members of the city fire department and other adult guests dined with Winthrop students Monday during the second installment of The Lunch Tray mentoring program.

City native Katie Halissey, a former guidance counselor at New London High School who now helps guide kids into college with Higher Edge, wanted to do something positive after a former student, Travon Brown, class of 2008, was fatally stabbed on Dec. 17, 2017. Brown was a quiet, super-polite kid from a good family, she said.

"I wanted to just let these kids know there's people in the community that are here and care and want to get to know them," Halissey said. She modeled the idea after the Coffee with A Cop program and decided to invite a different group of people to the school once a month to each lunch with the kids.

She chose the Winthrop School because two of her daughters are enrolled there. She named the program Lunch Tray, because "Tray" was Brown's nickname and she thought it was catchy. Last month, Halissey brought her coworkers from Higher Edge, including State Rep. Chris Soto, D-New London, to the school and said the staff talked about it for days afterword. This month, she invited members of the fire department. City police officers are lined up for next month's installment.

Brown's brother, Curtis Goodwin Jr., signed on immediately. On Monday, he cheerfully re-directed kids who attempted to pull off his fedora by asking them to give him "high fives." He sampled the vegetables that were served with the school lunch, pronouncing them "perfect." Goodwin is director and co-founder of the New London Youth Talent Show, another positive program for youth that was conceived out of tragedy after six New London teens were charged with the 2010 stabbing death of city resident Matthew Chew. 

"I had a kid who sang to me and said he wanted to be in my talent show," Goodwin said. "It was perfect."

Brown's sister, Jazmin Brown, surprised her daughter, Iyanna, a first-grade student at Winthrop, with the guest appearance. She wore a shirt that said, "#TrayDay," and pictured a smiling Travon Brown sitting with her daughter on a front stoop. He was a loving uncle, she said.

"I celebrate him every day, so it's nice to see other people celebrating him," Jazmin Brown said. "It's a bittersweet moment."

Fire Chief Henry Kydd sipped milk from a 4-ounce carton and chatted with his 7-year-old grandson and three other second graders, Luke, Lidia and Juanelys. The main thrust of their conversation? His age and the hats the fire company presented kids during a previous visit. Kydd had arranged for three separate fire crews, all of them on duty, to change into their blue dress shirts and staff the lunch shifts Monday. The kids said they remembered seeing Kydd and other firefighters on another occasion, when the firefighters presented them with a gift of hats.

"I think the firemen are enjoying this as much as the children," said Angela Rasmussen, operations manager at Winthrop. She said the school takes part in the U.S. Department of Education's Positive Behavior in Schools program and regularly provides mentoring programs. When Halissey approached her with The Lunch Tray proposal to have adult visitors once a month, she said it was perfect.

Chelsey Roberts, a special education teacher, said exposing the children to the firefighters would make them less afraid of the firefighters should they see them in the community and to "know they're here to help."

At one table, an 8-year-old named Cyanne told firefighter Todd Patton that she wanted to be president one day, an endeavor he encouraged. Patton also talked with Ethan, 8, about the boy's upcoming summer vacation to New York.

While introducing the firefighters to a group of first-graders, Rasmussen asked the children, "What do the guys in blue do?"

"They protect the universe," was the response from one child.

k.florin@theday.com