Page 6, February 17, 2023, BlueStone Press
Refurbished lockers, gold art Marbletown First awards, and ‘Mamma Mia!’ Aid Unit saves a life Briefs
At 8:57 on Saturday morning, Feb.4, MFAU responded to a 911 dispatch for a personal injury auto accident on Route 213 in High Falls. The crew arrived to find CPR being administered to an adult male by Rosendale Police Officer Vincent. The driver was suffering a heart attack. MFAU's crew went to work continuing CPR, administering two AED shocks, and rapidly transporting the patient to Health Alliance Hospital in Kingston. The patient survived! On March 3 at noon MFAU will welcome the patient and his spouse at its School Hill Road building in High Falls to meet the crew, Sofia Medici, Dominick Carlucci and Paul Medici, and to celebrate them receiving awards for their fast and professional work. This remarkable life-saving event merits community celebration. Proud of the MFAU, Joe Vitti states, “CPR saves are a rare and wonderful thing. The patient and his wife have expressed tremendous gratitude. I'd point out that this is a victory for the entire community that has supported MFAU, allowing us to keep a crew at the ready 24/7 and so able to respond consistently faster than ever before.”
Nominations requested for local artists and organizations for Arts Awards Arts Mid-Hudson is requesting nominations for the 11th Annual Ulster County Executive's Arts Awards. Residents of Ulster County and businesses or corporations that are based in Ulster County are eligible to receive an award. The 10 categories this year include: Artivist, Arts in Education, Arts Organization, Art in Public Places, Business/Corporation, Inclusion in the Arts, Individual Artist, Patron/Philanthropy, Volunteer, and Youth with Exceptional Promise in the Arts. Recipients are not chosen by the number of nominations received, but by the quality of their work and by the depth of which it benefits the Ulster County community. Nominees must be residents of, or corporations/organizations doing business in, Ulster County. For more information call 845-454-3222 or email artsawards@artsmidhudson.org.
Amber Kelly BSP Reporter
The RVSD Budget Committee reported good news at the Feb. 7 BOE meeting in the high school cafeteria. “We had some discussion about some lockers in the middle school,” board vice president Chris Schoonmaker said. “The initial budget that was estimated when we went out to bid was $259,000, and we got some quotes to come back, to replace all the lockers, and it is around $400,000. Looking into other options of refurbish and painting it looks like costs are cut by about 50% if we do the refurbishing relative to full replacement.” The building principal recommended taking out the free-standing lockers and sending them to a factory for painting and installation of a new lock mechanism. The current mechanism allows the padlocks to swing and make scratch marks. The new ones will have an inlet chrome piece so the lock will just hit that. The board voted yes. Student board member Emily Bordalone said, “The high school performance of ‘Mamma Mia!’ will take place in the high school auditorium on Feb. 24 and 25 at 7 p.m. and on Feb. 26 at 2 p.m.” Principal Andrew Davenport gave an update on Marbletown Elementary School, saying that since January 2023, they have worked on expanding the amount of offerings after school. There are two different sessions of the Painting Club, a K1 Lego club, and a STEAM club (science, technology, engineering, art and math). Two groups are doing a third-grade drama club. In one club, students are going to learn a poem, recite it, and dress the part. Another group of third graders are working with modified scenes from Shakespeare. There is soccer after school, and basketball three nights a week after school. “In January we had a PTA-held dance, it was a ‘Frozen’ theme … it was a movie, we had face painting, food, DJ, and photo booth,” Davenport said. “I was really surprised we had tons of people come out, and the kids were all dressed up – it was pretty fantastic. “David Levine from Teaching Empathy Institute came in and also worked with students and staff. His book is ‘A School of Belonging’ and it fits nicely with our emphasis on success skills like empathy, integrity, self-control and embracing diversity. He worked with kids in the classroom and also met with the grade-level teachers,” Davenport said. “We also had
Cast of “Mamma Mia” rehearsing choreography
our 2023 reading challenge, with the goal of reading 2,023 books in four weeks. We ended up with 15,773 books. “Our focus for this month is empathy and kindness, so when Sen. (Michelle) Hinchey’s office reached out to us last week to see if we’d be interested in having our students make Valentine’s Day cards for senior citizens, I put it out to staff and they jumped on that. This morning a representative from Sen. Hinchey’s office came over and took a huge box of hundreds of valentines. They’re going to nursing homes in our area. Next week is Random Acts of Kindness Week and our school counselors are pushing into classes with the Bullying Prevention Program. Our No Place for Hate club will also be doing an event here in the next few weeks. “I want to thank Mr. Cutler and the staff and students at the intermediate school. They came down last week to work with the second- and third-graders,” Davenport said.
The art department encourages students to enter competitions. Lisa Pacht, assistant superintendent of schools and operations, said, “I’m very excited to announce that on Friday night we had our Hudson Valley Scholastic Art awards ceremony in SUNY New Paltz. If you don’t know, Scholastic Art Awards is open for seventh- to 12th-grade students, and their artwork is adjudicated by a panel of judges, and they’re awarded gold at the highest level, silver and honorable mention. “This year we had five silver winners and eight gold winners. The gold winners will now go down to New York City and be adjudicated at the national level, and if we have any winners they will go on to Carnegie Hall in the spring to get their award,” said Pacht. “Sitting at the table here, it just so happens … Sierra (Hikade, student board member) had two silver awards and two gold awards on Friday, so congratulations!”
