Number of Participants: 30
Hours Donated: 2
Value of Time Served: $507
Event Type: Civic & Community
Sport: Schools
Date: December 28, 2018
Location:
Shoreham
NY, USA
About:
Students and staff members in the Shoreham-Wading River School District work throughout the school year to spread kindness and cheer and their efforts expanded this holiday season.
With the sounds of the season in the schools and community and collections of needed items for people in the surrounding communities, SWR students and staff shared their gifts of artistry, music and compassion.
Students in the high school’s Tri-M Music Honor Society visited the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook, Little Flower School in Wading River and AHRC in Shoreham to spread cheer and perform music for the residents and students. They also planned and performed their first holiday concert at the North Shore Public Library to a large audience of community members.
The Orpheus Ensemble spread holiday cheer around the community through various musical performances. These talented string musicians practice together throughout the year and this season performed music at various community venues including the annual Wading River Historical Society Holiday Tea as well as Miller Avenue School’s annual art show. Under the leadership of music teacher Dennis Creighton, the high school’s chorus spent a morning greeting younger students at Albert G. Prodell Middle School, Wading River School and Miller Avenue School with a festive selection of songs of the season.
The High School Happiness Bags Project was a great success. Coordinated by health teacher Mary Mitchell and student leaders; hats, gloves and Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards were collected and coordinated into 61 clear plastic bags to be distributed to Maureen’s Haven in Riverhead for people who are in need.
Prodell Student Council members, under the leadership of social worker Andrea Monz, helped organize their annual Holiday Giving Tree, which was filled with ornaments anonymously listing a local child’s wishes for the holidays.
The District hosted its annual English as a New Language Family Literacy and “Holidays Around the World” Night at Miller Avenue. ENL teachers Tricia McCabe, Susana Vique-Kearney, Jennifer Hoey and Sandra Nicotra, Christine Carlson, principal of Miller Avenue, and Nicole Waldbauer, director of humanities, organized the event along with librarians from the North Shore Public Library. Students and their families learned about important resources offered by the district and the public library, signed up for library cards and shared dinner and fun activities with teachers and administrators.
At both Miller Avenue School and Wading River School, students and staff took part in the Salvation Army’s traditional Angel Tree, a program designed to enable community members to provide clothing and toys to specific children in need. Second-grade teacher Alice Steinbrecher and fifth-grade teacher Melissa Levonick and special education teacher Meredith Trani coordinated the program at each school and hundreds of gifts and toys were collected and picked up by the Salvation Army.