Students show appreciation for the kids

Belmonte Staff Writer

KRB722@CABRINI EDU

Over 30 student volunteers from Cabrini gathered in the Dixon Center on Tuesday, April 5 for Cabrini’s Kids Count Day organized by junior Claudia Sciandra. Kids from the Don Guanella School, the Police Athletic League (PAL), and Big Brothers and Big Sisters came for a day full of sports activities, games, t-shirt making, food and prizes.

About 25 kids from the ages of 7-14 came for a day of fun. Sciandra said, “Kids Count Day was a day that a bunch of student organizations got together to have an appreciation day for all the kids, and to show the students of Cabrini how involved they’ve been.”

The group that really organized everything is the Peer Scholars who are a new group on campus. Mary Laver, director of applied and social teaching, said, “The Peer Scholars is a new program at Cabrini consisting of five student who are picked to receive scholarships and also program money to find ways to get Cabrini College interested in mentoring kids.”

Another student involved who is one of the peer scholars is Cabrini sophomore Andrew Randolph. Randolph got involved with the Norristown coordinator at the PALcenter, and believes that’s these after school type programs provide the children with a

Don Guanella school said, “We do a lot of great programming with Cabrini through the radio station, dances, and all sorts of activities. They even have the freshman come to our school to do a day of service there.”

Claudia Sciandra explained that there were many different organizations on campus that were involved in making this program a success.

RHA, SGA, CAP Board, Sigma Rho, Cabrini tennis team, the Accounting Club, Big Brothers and Big Sisters all teamed up together to give the kids a day of appreciation.

The son of Michael Jackson’s former housekeeper testified Monday that the pop star molested him during a tickling game in 1990. The 24-year-old witness was called to the stand as prosecutors in the current molestation case against Jackson began trying to show the jury that the singer has a habit of molesting boys. The witness said that over a span of several years, Jackson twice touched his groin over his clothes during tickling games at Jackson’s Los Angeles-area condominium. The appearance of the young man was allowed under a ruling last week by the judge that prosecutors may present evidence that Jackson molested or otherwise behaved inappropriately with five boys before the time period of the current allegations. Jackson is on trial on charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy in February or March 2003.

Play focuses on church molestation wonderful outlet. “I made contact with Brett Wells through the PALcenter previously through my projects and found him to be someone beneficial to Claudia’s project today,” said Randolph.

Two other peer scholars also got involved. Juniors, Deirdre Beadle and Jen Brown said together, “ We were given a great opportunity, plus we had a little bit of experience in corrections.”

Robert Neely who is with the

There were various activities for the children to get involved in. They had basketball games, kickball, t-shirt making, snacks, and prizes. Sciandra feels like it is very important to get Cabrini involved in working with the kids.

Sciandra also said, “Personally I would like to thank Mary Laver for her guidance and support and the Peer Scholars, Andrew, Deirdre, Jen and all the volunteers. I wouldn’t have been able to pull this off without you.”

“Doubt,” the first Broadway play by Oscar-winning writer John Patrick Shanley, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for drama Monday. Sanley’s play opened on Broadway just last week to critical acclaim after an off-Broadway run. It tells the story of a confrontation between a nun and a Roman Catholic priest at a Bronx parish; she suspects the priest of molesting a male student.

NJ is scene of largest anti-terrorism drill ever

The biggest anti-terrorism drill ever held in the United States got under way Monday with a mock biological attack in New Jersey and a simulated chemicalweapons explosion in Connecticut. Named TOPOFF 3, the $16 million, weeklong exercise is meant to find weak spots in the nation’s emergency planning. “I want to make it clear that we are going to push our plans and our systems to the very limit,” U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. “So we expect failure because we’re actually going to be seeking to push to failure, and that is, in our judgment, the best way to get a ‘lessons learned’ from what we do here.” Although no real weapons or bioagents are used, state and local officials responded as if it were the real thing, sending ambulances to hospitals and flooding the area with investigators and emergency workers in haz-mat suits.

Pageant winnerfound to be ‘not disabled enough’

Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin has been stripped of her title because pageant officials say she can stand — and point to a newspaper picture as proof. Janeal Lee, who has muscular dystrophy and uses a scooter, was caught standing among her high school math students.

“I’ve been made to feel as if I can’t represent the disabled citizens of Wisconsin because I’m not disabled enough,” Lee said Thursday. Candidates for the crown have to “mostly be seen in the public using their wheelchairs or scooters,” said Judy Hoit, Ms. Wheelchair America’s treasurer. “Otherwise you’ve got women who are in their wheelchairs all the time and they get offended if they see someone standing up. We can’t have title holders out there walking when they’re seen in the public.”