Three Village Central School District’s Minnesauke Elementary School sixth-grade students in Lou Petrucci’s class helped to spread holiday cheer within their local community an abroad during two recent community service projects.

The students made holiday cards, trinkets for gifts and donated gifts to the children at Angela’s House in Stony Brook. This establishment assists families caring for medically frail children living at home with their parents or in special homes that offer 24-hour nursing support.

Additionally, the class participated in Adopt-a-Platoon to provide a bit of the holidays and the comforts of home to those service men and woman deployed oversees. For the initiative, the students made cards for the soldiers with boxes of candy canes. 

 

Photo caption: Minnesauke Elementary School sixth-grade students in Lou Petrucci’s class helped to spread holiday cheer within their local community an abroad during two recent community service projects.

 

Photo courtesy of the Three Village Central School District

 

Two Merrimac Elementary School siblings in the Sachem Central School District went above and beyond as they organized a kickball tournament aimed at collecting nonperishable food items and cleaning supplies to donate to the nonprofit organization Island Harvest, benefiting those affected by the devastating hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

As part of the Leader in Me program, third-grade student Gabriel Nagel and fifth-grader Sarah Nagel organized the engaging benefit to involve all students of Merrimac Elementary by creating friendly competition amongst classes. With help from gym teachers Robert Romano and Nicole Kessinger, the drive was arranged so that every two days each class’ donations would be tallied to arrive at that class’ total score. Adding an interesting twist to the drive, the inclusion of cleaning supplies as bonus items counted as 15 points added to the class totals. During each gym class throughout the week, every point scored by students during the kickball games was added to their overall totals.

The Leader in Me is a program that provides students the opportunity to organize a service learning project that will contribute to the community. Each proposed project is presented to students and staff before implementation.

The student duo worked together to create flyers and announcements to promote the Kicking for a Cause drive throughout the building. The fundraiser provided students across all grade levels an opportunity to synergize and work toward a common goal while having fun.

“With the Leader in Me program our students have developed valuable skills such as leadership, communication, empathy and teamwork, all of which have contributed to a school culture that values project-based learning, goal setting and critical thinking,” said Merrimac Principal Veronica DeCicco. “All of the students learned a valuable lesson about contributing as a community.”

As a result of the school’s generosity, hundreds of items were donated to the cause.

At the conclusion of the drive, Michelle Nelson’s kindergarten class, Peter Gentzlinger’s first-grade class and Lorraine Alvarez’s fifth-grade class were presented with trophies donated by Port Jefferson Sporting Goods to be displayed in their classrooms as the three winning classes.

 

Photo caption: MerrimacFundraiser1: Gabriel Nagel and Sarah Nagel, Merrimac Elementary student organizers of the kicking for a cause fundraiser.

 

Photo courtesy of the Sachem Central School District

Twenty-seven students from Earl L. Vandermeulen High School in the Port Jefferson School District recently braved the cold waters of Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai to take part in the eighth annual Polar Plunge for Special Olympics.  

Accompanied by teachers Deirdre Filippi and Jesse Rosen, members of the high school’s varsity club participated in the event that is sponsored by the Town of Brookhaven. They were among the hundreds of people out to support the sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Their fundraising efforts helped secure nearly $1,500, which will sponsor four athletes for a year. 

“We chose the Polar Plunge because as a community service-minded group, we thought that it would be a great way for our students to see how their combined efforts could have such a wonderful impact upon the greater community,” said Filippi. “Since our club is centered around student athletes, we couldn’t have picked a better organization (Special Olympics) to help raise money for.”

 

Photo caption: Earl L. Vandermeulen High School Varsity Club participated in the eighth annaul Polar Plunge for Special Olympics.

 

Photo courtesy of the Port Jefferson School District

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The Syosset High School Peers Reaching Out club once again showed its appreciation to our country’s military men and women through its annual fundraising breakfast to honor and support local veterans, held in conjunction with several other clubs at the school on Nov. 9.

The sentiment embodying this year’s Veterans Day breakfast was “We don’t know them ALL, but we owe them ALL.” In addition to PRO, the high school Cooking Club, Interact, Virtual Enterprise, Art, DECA, Future Leaders of America and Student Government worked collaboratively to raise $1,460. These monies will be donated to the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and the Red Cross in support of hurricane relief efforts. 

According to PRO adviser David Anderson, the breakfast not only raised awareness and respect for veterans among students, but also provided a platform for students to achieve a meritorious goal through cohesion and selflessness.

 

Photo Caption: Members of the Syosset High School Peers Reaching Out club with members of VFW Post 6394 during the annual PRO Breakfast fundraiser.

 

Photo courtesy of the Syosset School District

NEW HAVEN, Conn. –  The Southern Connecticut State University gymnastics team recently collected and purchased food items that were donated to area needy in conjunction with the Thanksgiving Holiday.

This event is just one example of many community outreach events that SCSU student-athletes take part in on an annual basis. SCSU student-athletes volunteered more than 2,500 hours of their time to numerous outreach efforts, both on-campus and in Greater New Haven, during the 2016-17 academic year.

 

http://southernctowls.com/news/2017/11/27/gymnastics-program-collects-donates-food-for-area-needy.aspx