Seaford school hosts 'fine dining' lunch

Some boys donned sport jackets and ties and girls wore party dresses Friday for what has become a preholiday tradition at Seaford's East Broadway Elementary School: the annual "fine dining" lunch.

The cafeteria at the K-5 school in the Levittown district was transformed for the event, its plain tables spread with tablecloths and decorated with festive centerpieces as carols played in the background. It was a time to focus on manners, with some of the educators taking the chance to eat lunch with their students.

One of the stars Friday was Mildred Bowman, 87, known as "Ms. Millie" to the children, a lunchroom monitor who has worked for the district since 1974. Wearing a Santa hat, she passed out snack crackers and cautioned some of the more excited students to walk, not run. Like the other lunch monitors, she wore black and white -- her idea for the special occasion -- to represent wait staff.

"I just like the children," she said.

Student Thomas Ort, 8, had high praise: "She's nice. She helps us."

Principal Jeanmarie Wink said Ms. Millie is such a fixture in the school, known to hand out Smarties candy and give change to a child who may be short that day, that parents and former students who visit often ask to see her, too.

Wink said the formal dining experience started six years ago.

"With so many different nationalities and cultures, it is difficult to celebrate one holiday. So in order to make it a special day, we decided to call it fine dining," Wink said.

Colleen McNally, 8, wore a party dress with a velvet top and a cream-colored skirt accented with rhinestones. "It's really fun. I always loved doing it," she said of getting dressed up.

Fifth-grader Troy Leipsner, 10, sported a red tie, a red vest and a dark suit. Black dress shoes completed his outfit.

"You don't really do this a lot," he said of the formal dining experience.