Nassau Notebook: Students raise funds for Haiti
From dressing down to skipping snacks, students across Long Island have pitched in to collect monetary donations for the relief effort to aid victims of the Haiti earthquake.
In Seaford, Maria Regina School raised $2,000 by encouraging students to wear jeans instead of their usual uniforms in exchange for a donation of $1 to Catholic Relief Services, an international humanitarian agency.
"No matter how small a donation it is, it's something that will impact people," said Edward Escobar, Mineola High School principal. "It's important for kids to know they can make a difference."
He said the Student Services Center, Student Government and Red Cross Club teamed up to host a pancake breakfast last weekend for $3 a person. The district advertised the event on its Web site and sent invitations home to parents. The students raised $12,000.
In Miller Place, North Country Road Middle School students are donating $5 each to wear red and blue for Haiti's flag and to benefit the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders.
West Babylon Junior High students are forgoing snacks and depositing the unused money in jugs set up in the cafeteria to benefit the nonprofit organizations Friends of the Orphans. "One student put in a $10 bill as soon as the collection jugs went out," said guidance counselor Lorraine Zemba.
Students and staff at Jack Abrams Intermediate School in Huntington Station are participating in a Hats for Haiti initiative, paying $1 each to wear a hat to school - an act that is typically against school policy.
CARLE PLACE
Insight into Tourette's
Rushmore Avenue School fourth-graders recently learned about Tourette's syndrome and how it affects children during a visit from the Long Island Tourette's Association.
The program included lectures on vocal and motor tics and a discussion of celebrities who suffer from the syndrome. A workshop challenged kids to write the Pledge of Allegiance while being continuously interrupted and distracted - similar to the effects of Tourette's.
"Tourette's is a syndrome that is becoming more and more prevalent in schools, but many students know very little about it," said fourth-grade teacher Kathleen Marconi.
EAST MEADOW
Playground dedication
Parkway Elementary School recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new playground that was made possible by $19,000 collected through fundraising efforts coordinated by the school's PTA. A new park bench is expected to be donated by Girl Scout Troop No. 1563 in the near future.
Those in attendance included PTA co-presidents Samantha Euler and Amy Perticare, principal Louis Panzica and Superintendent Louis DeAngelo, who took a ceremonial first slide down that piece of equipment.
LOCUST VALLEY
Live TV production
Locust Valley High School students recently experienced a live video shoot when TV production classes filmed a performance by the school's 55-student symphonic band.
The teens used a range of professional camera equipment, including a jib crane, and followed instructions issued over headsets by a student director. A technical director selected shots to use from a panel of screens in the next room.
"Filming a live concert that they cannot stop because they missed the angle - that's knowledge they can't gain otherwise," said TV production teacher Robert Zahn.
LYNBROOK
Long-distance animal love
Waverly Park School students are raising funds to help establish the first-ever no-kill animal shelter in the Galápagos Islands that will neuter stray animals and treat them for various injuries and disease. The students came up with the idea after studying the ecosystem of the islands.
The students have raised $200 this winter by completing household chores - a total matched by principal Lucille McAssey and teachers Susan Lindner and Jackie Miller - and plan to raise additional funds by recycling plastic bottles. Funds benefit the Amigo Fiel Animal Hospital.
COUNTYWIDE
DECA competition
Nearly 300 students from Nassau County schools were named winners earlier this month in the Distributive Education Clubs of America regional competition at Nassau Community College. They will advance to the state level in Rochester on March 10-12. Local winners were:
Farmingdale: Saniya Khan, Rebecca Lombardi, Adam Makkawi, Robert Sutherland and Samantha Turetsky of Farmingdale High School; Levittown: Harry Brar, Anthony Galli, Don Hunker, Errol Kuppelian, Ameer Muhammed, Nicole Murad, Brandon Oliveri, Andrew Reicherter, Gabe Rodriguez and Josh Sherman of Division Avenue High School; Massapequa: Jennifer DeLetto, Justin Goldberg, Nick LaTorre, Josef Pevsner, Andrew Prafder and Paul Schianno of Massapequa High School; Merrick: Christopher Behnke, Jake Behrman, Phillipa Boyes, Kimberly Brower, Kurt Brown, Erin Cardinal, Meghan Flood, Brittany Ledgin, Marissa Levy, Ashley McGetrick, Michaela Murphy, Devon Ott, Nicole Pernice, Amanda Phillips, Catherine Ruvolo, Kevin Ryan, Samantha Sachs, Adam Samuels, Carolyn Scanlon, Andrew Schreiber, James Sciolto, Christopher Serenita, Leah Sobel, Michelle Strauss, Laura Tejo and Corey Werbelow of Sanford H. Calhoun High School; Westbury: Alan Alex, Haley Carey, Erin Dunleavy, Alex Evangelatos, Jed Fantastico, Samantha Difilippi, Jamie Gelberg, Shaina Himelstein, Michael Itzla, Rachel Karcher, Alexandra Leonardo, Norman Mathews, Alexis Mello, Vanessa Moreno, Jennifer Neidle, Thomas Randazzo, Tiffany Rose, Kelly Schneider, Arjan Singh, Carra So and Apeksha Tayal of W. Tresper Clarke High School.Freeport: Ashley Araya, Jason Araya, Naomi Lopez, Irene Muniz, Jennifer Robalino, Jaspinder Singh and Yaminequa Werts of Freeport High School; Lawrence: Alexander Brickman, Jerika-Tae Colon, Daniel Faynblut, Jonathan Feuerstein, Noah Friedlander, Alex Gold, Derek Jacobs, Shelby Lebo, Nicholas Mayo, Elon Packin, Neha Patel, Mandy Popelaski, Andrew Postman, Michelle Rothstein, Eric Schaffer, James Schuster, Samuel Sussman, Charles Weiner and Jeremy Wiener of Lawrence High School; Oceanside: Katie Kravat, Richard Krims, Nick Palmiotto and John Rubino of Oceanside High School.
Brookville: Erik Hessel and Dina Homavuni of Long Island Lutheran High School; Glen Cove: Brittany Baker, Patrick Bellidoro, Christopher Borer, Warton Du, Costa Fakatselis, Alexandra Gerin, Adan Kornfeld, Andrea Lazo, Nicholas Manzione, Risa Nagel, Andrew Sakhaee and Katherine Serrano of Glen Cove High School; Great Neck: Amanda Boltax, Zachary Crane, Max Cron, George Elua, Martin Emma, David Eshaghoff, Sam Eshaghoff, Caitlin Fritsch, Brooke Hamroff, Mina Hematian, Gabriella Javaheri, Jacob Kash, Jennifer Lenchner, Jordan Levy, Chloe Liu, Emma Martin, Gabe Motola, Nicole Nicholas, Cindy Peng, Blake Pittell, Claudia Rashtian, Darien Schwartz, Danielle Siegel, Joseph Stern, Shauna Tavazo and Aaron Yaghoobian of Great Neck North High School; Gurshaan Bains, Nayaab Bakshi, Spencer Beck, Alec Bernstein, Jane Berrill, David Campbell, Gospel Choi, Joey Citrini, Michael Cohen, Jonathan Dennet, Bryan Dieber, Ross Dispenza, Darrell Engle, Allison Famularo, Michelle Ferber, Phillip Foo, Bobby Friedner, Steven Friedner, Jordan Ginor, Gil Greenberg, AJ Grossbart, Andrew Grossman, Jake Grusd, Matt Hershenhorn, Ross Hoffman, Roei Hoory-Curi, Ethan Kleinberg, Vita Jaspan, Andrew Karasyk, Tristan Kacprzyk, Tara Khorti, Tony Lam, Jon Livers, Rachel Marks, Brian Miranda, Kevin Miranda, Harrison Pravder, Brad Reider, Mariel Reiss, Jared Root, Brian Rosenfeld, Josh Rosenfeld, Evan Savell, Cooper Spector-Salmen, Eddie Starr and Marc Weiner of Great Neck South High School; Herricks: Nabil Ahmed, Batool Ali, Roshni Amin, Yonatan Benyamini, Sheryl Bohan, Lakshmi Byagari, Radha Byagari, Allegra Chuchul, Daniel Cohanpaur, Tyler Cohen, Sindhu Darisi, John DiMarco, Sarah Elsheryie, Rohan Gheewala, Kevin Groudan, Melvin John, Brian Han, Ammar Hamid, Marc Hershberg, Lauren Jacobson, Sohail Kamdar, Nabiha Keshwani, Tasnin Khan, Richard Lee, Yesha Maniar, Jerry Mathew, Abhiraj Mathur, Alex Okin, Harrison Okin, Hewon Park, Neha Patel, Sohum Patwa, Aakaash Pillalamarri, Harjas Sahni, Tom Shea, Sana Sheikh, Suditi Sood, Karishma Tank, Calvin Thomas, Deval Tolia, Sheetal Tolia, Jai Valmiki, Jeffrey Wu, Meena Yoo and Gabby Zilkha of Herricks High School; Plainview: Luke Aguera, Timothy Bak, Melissa Benenson, Emmanuel Billias, Madeline Cepeda, Benjamin Delshad, Jacob Egert, Bryan Fried, Allison Giosa, William Gladstone, Ashley Glass, Daniel Goldbaum, Jason Goldstein, Jennifer Greenspan, Gregory Haft, Robert Hymowitz, Melissa Ilgner, Nicole Kadushin, Tomer Katz, Nidhi Mann, Sarah Miller, Zachary Monchik, Derek Schear, Ryan Tucker, James Utkovic, James Wang and Andrew You of Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School; Roslyn Heights: Lauren Abeles, Ilanna Askenase, Danielle Baxt, Sydney Berger, Lauren Futterman, Andrew Jacobs, Samantha Kaplan, Chase Kent, Nourin Lalezari, Ethan Levy, Brandon Pearlman, Seth Sterneck and Rachel Vance of Roslyn High School; Syosset: Jonathan Cohen, Alex Davidson, Joshua Hyman, Nathan Kim, Adam Lustig, David Neiderfer, Jamie Schenker and Ross Zuckerman of Syosset High School.
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