Student Council News from 2008-2009
By Ms. Foley and Mrs. Dejewski
A Meeting – and Eating! – Across Two Generations
NORTH MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. — Albany Avenue Student Council recently hosted a pancake breakfast for senior citizens at their school. Thirty-five seniors from the Albany Avenue Senior Center received invitations made by the students themselves and were treated to a complimentary breakfast and were waited on individually by Student Council members. The breakfast gave the students a special opportunity to meet and interact with senior citizens from the Farmingdale community and also experience first-hand the feeling of helping someone else, while the seniors enjoyed the interaction with the students – as well as being pampered too!
The menu included pancakes, eggs, bacon and a choice of juices, fresh fruit salad, coffee, tea and assorted muffins, bagels and pastries. All of the food was donated by the Student Council members and their families. Teacher volunteers did the actual cooking: Ms. Sepe, Mr. Bedell, Mrs. Guardiola, Mrs. Masseria, Ms. Aboff and Mrs. Olsen. Parent volunteers and PTA also provided additional help.
Student Council is always having fun. In January, we celebrated Super Bowl School Spirit week. We had the entire student population vote for their favorite team to win the Super Bowl. This provided an opportunity for sports trivia, math questions and some school spirit. On the Friday afternoon just before Super Bowl weekend, we gave away gift baskets to enjoy while watching the big game. More than 24 lucky students were chosen at random and went home with big smiles to go along with the prizes.
We are currently running our “Pennies for Puppies” collection for the Guide Dog Foundation located in Smithtown. As you may know, this organization, which runs entirely on donations, provides dogs to help people live more independent lives. The puppies are put through their training and then matched to a person in need. We have a collection jar in the main lobby and will cash in our pennies to present a check to the Foundation in April. The Guide Dog Foundation will be visiting our school on Wednesday, April 22 and will present an assembly program for fourth and fifth graders and then stay and visit our Student Council meeting after school. And yes they will be bringing dogs to show the students at school. Stay tuned to see how much money we collect in pennies. And please keep those pennies coming!
The PTA has asked the Student Council members to help them run the school store. They listened to the PTA members share how they needed good, responsible help and knew that the members of Student Council could make a difference. So our Student Council members have a rotating schedule of when they “work." They are waiting on customers, making change, counting out the cash drawer at the end of store hours, and learning how to be more responsible while having fun too.
Looking ahead, Student Council will be going on a field trip in June. We will be going to visit behind the scenes of the Town of Oyster Bay Government. The students will take a tour of the offices of Town government. They will meet their local representatives and have an opportunity to ask questions. We would like to thank the Town of Oyster Bay and Mr. Venditto for providing the transportation to make this trip possible at no cost to the students. Who knows, maybe one of these young students could be one of tomorrow’s leaders!
