School Notes

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Preschool

Students at St. Mary’s Little Lambs Early Childhood Learning Center in Port Jervis participated in a Trike-a-thon to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the top children’s cancer center in the nation. The students brought their bikes to school and practiced safety lessons they had learned during the program, which taught riding-toy safety through interactive stories.

Twenty-eight children rode their way to victory, raising $1,533 for the research hospital which will provide a child with cancer with two transfusion units of red blood cells and more than two days of oxygen.

Youth Detective Scott Robertson of the Port Jervis Police Department assisted with the Trike-a-thon.

Elementary Schools

Fourth-grade students at Christ the King Elementary School in the Bronx teamed up with author Nancy Arroyo Ruffin to self-publish “De Donde Vengo Yo (Where I’m From): Poems of Pride.” The collection, which was printed in June 2014, contains original student poetry expressing pride in their ancestry.

The book won first place for “Best Book Written by a Youth” at the Latino Literacy Now International Latino Book Awards. These awards are the largest Latino cultural awards in the United States, having been established more than two decades ago to celebrate books published in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The winners were announced June 27 in San Francisco.

When describing the students’ commitment to the project, Ms. Arroyo Ruffin said, “Pride is instilled. It is what you carry with you every day of your life.”

High School

Fifteen students from John A. Coleman Catholic High School in Kingston traveled to Albany to attend the recent New York State Lobby for Life Day. Traveling with them were their teacher Michael McCabe and members of the Ulster Deanery Respect Life Committee members.

Bishop Edward Scharfenberger of Albany and New York State Senator Kathleen Marchione addressed the lobbyists at the spring event. The keynote speaker was Nora Flores, who is a registered nurse.

The students were greeted by a representative of New York State Senator George Amedore Jr. Frank Patience, secretary of the Senate and an alumnus of Coleman High School, met with the students and explained the functions of the government and history of the Capitol building.