On Friday, April 21st the School celebrated Earth Day! It was a great success with students, faculty, staff and even alumni taking part! The day was filled with activity throughout the School.

We are so excited that many of the partners who worked with our 8th grade Long Island Ecosystems program made themselves available to work with students in grades 1 – 8 during Earth day.

The Waterfront Center brought a variety of creatures for our younger elementary school children to engage with, and our middle and upper elementary children worked with the Waterfront Center and the Cradle of Aviation Museum to build gutter boats, wind turbines and solar cars. See a video from the day below:

The afternoon consisted of our traditional multi-grade student work-groups led by faculty and staff that took on challenges across the campus. Projects completed by our students this year included: exquisite linoleum block printed garden labels, the creation of six wooden benches for the grounds, handmade bubble wands, a new waterproof tarp for the softball field and gorgeous sun printed fabrics. We also added many new plants to the front of the school and blueberries and raspberries in the courtyard. Our mini fruit orchard lining the north garden received two persimmon trees. Particularly exciting this year is the expansion of our bird gardens, and certifications that designate our grounds an official wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation and a monarch way-station by Monarch Watch.

In celebration of our hard work, we closed out the day together in the Cranin Courtyard with food and musical offerings from our high school musicians. What a treat to hear our school’s newest set of gamelon instruments orchestrated by Dale Stuckenbruck!

Please click here to see photos taken throughout the day by parent Iwonka Piotrowska, Senior, Crystal Zheng and eighth grader, YuAn Ma. We appreciate their hard work and beautiful photography.

A special note from organizer, Jeannine Davis: “The talent, enthusiasm and dedication of the students, faculty and staff was extraordinary! Thank you to everyone for your incredible efforts!”

In Appreciation from Ms. Davis:

Thank you all so much for your participation in Earth Day 2017!  It could not have happened without the dedication, enthusiasm and talents of our faculty, students and staff.  The grounds look beautiful and there were many other groups making handmade crafts.

Thank you to:  Amalia Pretel-Gray, Frau Schneider and their fabulous crew in the labyrinth,  Ms. Splain and Ms. Cleary in the Fairy Garden, Ms. VerPault and Mr. Kim in the North Garden, Mr. Flanagan making a new waterproof tarp for the softball field, Ms.Crozier and her gorgeous sun printed fabrics, Ms. Gallo and Ms. Metz created exquisite garden labels out of linoleum ink blocks, Mr. Somers, Mrs. Somers, Ms. Reyes and Mr. Padilla making six sturdy benches for the grounds, Ms. DiDonato, Florence Kadri, Ms. Stemkoski and Ms. Cimino in the courtyard, Ms. Renker and Ms. Yaeger in the front of the school, Ms. Johnson in the entrance of the school, Mr. Fallu and Ms. Ver Ecke planting the fine plantings in the front of the school by the Waldorf School sign, Ms. Bolz, Mr.Reynolds and Ms. Thomas renewing the lower school playground, Mr. Gentile in the Winkler Garden, Mr. DeBellis and the band, Dr. Stuckenbruck and the ” Gamelon”, Ms. Solomon and her bubble wands, Dr. Bleecker and Ms. Beardsley creating the new Monarch Waystation, Ms. Jaskowski , Ms. Esposito, Ms. Bousraou and Ann Mulvehill in the food group with incredible assistance from the great chef AVIVA GILL and Kathy Bossuk and her newsletter crew. Thank you to Gina McCullough and Donna Buchbauer for their help distributing group assignments.

Our grounds are beautiful and are now an official “wildlife habitat” by The wildlife Federation.  Finally a special thank you to Ms. Piotrowska and her always stunning photography.