School Notes

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High Schools 

Seniors from Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains continued the tradition of supporting the Special Olympics New York program in the Hudson Valley by taking part in the eighth annual Polar Plunge held Nov. 12 at Glen Island in New Rochelle. A group of 40 seniors raised $8,000 by braving the cold waters of the Long Island Sound for the organization that provides year-round sports training and athletic competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

Students at St. Vincent Ferrer High School in Manhattan held fund-raisers last month for victims of Hurricane Otto in Costa Rica. Daniella Jimenez, a junior, organized the efforts that raised more than $1,200 after hearing about the destruction from family members who live there. Hurricane Otto killed at least five people and damaged 1,200 houses in November. It also destroyed dams, bridges and roads in the country. Students were familiar with the Central American country from a nine-day study tour in June.

St. Barnabas High School in the Bronx helped with several charitable holiday events. Members of the school’s honor societies organized the annual Thanksgiving food drive, which the students continued into the Christmas season. All food collected was donated to Hour Children, which helps formerly incarcerated women and their children rejoin the community. Students raised money at a dress-down day and collected new socks for the Aisling Irish Community Center in Yonkers, which assists the needy in the Irish community, and collected new and used coats for New York Cares.

Students from St. Jean Baptiste High School in Manhattan visited Corpus Christi School in Manhattan Dec. 8 to help sixth- and seventh-graders decorate 160 brown paper bags handed out at the food pantry of St. Joseph of the Holy Family Church in Harlem. Each bag was decorated with inspirational quotes or drawings to represent the Christmas season. The school’s principal, Christian Mariano, supplied Christmas music, art supplies and bags. The next day, eighth-graders at Corpus Christi partnered with La Salle Academy in Manhattan and St. Jean Baptiste to fill the bags with sandwiches, juice boxes, sandwiches, Graham crackers and potato chips. 

The Academy of Mount St. Ursula in the Bronx held an assembly Dec. 6 featuring the group Breaking the Cycle. The assembly, which stressed the power of forgiveness, discussed difficult topics including gun violence, suicide and alcoholism in the family. One speaker was paralyzed due to gun violence. Another speaker told of the suicide of her high school son, and the third shared what it was like to grow up with an alcoholic mother. Students were given the book “Why Forgive,” by Johann Christoph Arnold.  

Students from The Ursuline School in New Rochelle took part in a Turkey Train on Nov. 21. Students and families brought in frozen turkeys—756 of them—that were donated and delivered to St. Peter’s food pantry in Yonkers. On Nov. 22, members of the Key Club and 12 students from grades 7-11 volunteered at St. Peter’s to distribute Thanksgiving meals. The Social Action Club visited The Mercy Center in the Bronx and assisted in giving Thanksgiving meals to 180 people for the 10th year in a row. Ursuline students also organized a food drive for senior residents of the Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation; contributed to The Hope Soup Kitchen; and made cards for Meals-on-Wheels participants.

Send school-related news to Juliann DosSantos at jdossantos@cny.org.