Carnival Fun at Scarsdale High School
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The 2013 Scarsdale High School Carnival on April 19-20 was a bittersweet event for School Government Advisor Neil Ginsberg. He has been organizing the event for years with the help of school and class government officers. This year was his last as he as announced his retirement effective June, 2013.
Ginsberg reports that "we must be living right" because the rain held off and the show went on for both Friday night and Saturday afternoon. He says, "People seemed to have a great deal of fun and joy was in the air. It was a great feeling of community." He estimates that 2,000 – 2,500 attended and that approximately $17,000 was raised to be donated to various charities. Perhaps the biggest hit at the carnival was the Pharaoh ride, though from the pictures the roller coaster looked like a thrill as well.
Junior Class Representative Madison Bell-Rosof said, “The carnival this year was one of the best yet! The junior class raised money for prom by signing up to grill on Friday and Saturday. Everyone did their part, which was great because our hotdogs and burgers were in high demand. Besides the delicious food, I would say that our biggest success was bringing everyone's favorite ride, the zipper, back! Between all of the fun rides, the baked goods from the high school clubs, and the chance to dunk your favorite government reps in the dunk tank, it seemed like everyone had a great time.
Junior Class President Solange Azor also enjoyed the carnival. She said, “The carnival was definitely a success this year, as it usually is. The weather was gorgeous, we had a huge crowd and we even ended up extending the carnival on Saturday to 7 pm from 6pm as planned. There were no major problems or disturbances. We raised lots of money for charity and everyone had a good time.”
Ginsberg wished to thank "The School Government officers - especially Jacob Cannon -- as he was the organizer, plus the others who sold tickets; the group of young women who helped set up the club booths and scanned tickets; the students from around 50 school clubs, and the many teachers who chaperoned and advised clubs as well as the administrators for being there and always willing and ready to help." He added, "This is quite a place and I've been very lucky to have such great kids as students and officers and to work with such talented, professional colleagues."
Check out these beautiful carnival photos taken by Scarsdale High School Senior Becky Schwartz.
Kol Ami Kids Celebrate Israel's Birthday and UJA of Scarsdale Feeds the Hungry
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Energy and enthusiasm were in the air at Congregation Kol Ami's Early Childhood Program on Tuesday April 16th when the children took a "virtual" trip to Israel to commemorate the 65th Birthday of the State of Israel. The celebration of Israel's birth, or Yom Ha'Azmaut, is the date Israel was established formally as a state and the Declaration of Independence which was signed in Tel Aviv.
The "Trip to Israel" was a multi-sensory experience and children moved from room to room at the congregation. The first stop was to have their "passports" stamped. Then they took an airplane ride complete with a brief in flight film about Israel followed by visits to a variety of booths all related to Israel. They had the chance to ride a camel, make stained glass, experience a mud bath or find artifacts in a simulated archeological dig. Several children spent time sitting on the beach under an umbrella as they would in the resort area of Eilat. They also explored pita making, orange juice squeezing or grape pressing.
"Our childhood educational experience is designed to give children the opportunity to learn that they are part of the larger world," said Director, Nan Blank, "Creating a sense of pride in ones identity is a cornerstone of our values."
Congregation Kol Ami is a reform synagogue located in White Plains, New York. The Early Childhood Program is fully licensed by the Office for Children and Family Services and head teachers hold master degrees in education and early childhood. Sharing and caring for others is a key principal that is interwoven into the curriculum, as well as celebrating Jewish Holidays and participating in Mitzvah projects.
For more information visit www.nykolami.org
UJA-Federation of Scarsdale Feed the Hungry
Twenty-five women and children from UJA-Federation of New York's Scarsdale Women's Philanthropy came together to make sandwiches for clients of the Bronx Jewish Community Council (BJCC), a UJA-Federation beneficiary agency.
In addition to sandwich making, the kids also decorated cookies in honor of Yom HaAtzma'ut, Israel's Independence Day. BJCC's food pantry, which serves anyone in need, is the third largest in the borough, distributing more than 2,400 food packages monthly, with demand increasing each year. More and more homebound, isolated residents look to the agency for social programs, community resources, and information on benefits and entitlement eligibility.
Last year, the financial support of the Scarsdale Women's Philanthropy provided a refrigeration system for the food pantry at BJCC's new facility on Cruger Avenue. The project will allow those who visit only once or twice a week to get fresh food, such as produce, meat, dairy, and eggs. This year, the Scarsdale Women's Philanthropy's Share a Mitzvah project has the goal of raising $50,000 to finish critical renovations in the new space.
"The money raised last year provided incentive to further expand the scope of what BJCC can offer, including a place for its older clients in the Bronx to socialize, receive a variety of support, and enjoy a hot meal," explains Stacey Weil of Scarsdale, who leads the project. "We're working to make sure that the most vulnerable receive the support they need to live a dignified, full life."
After-Prom Fiasco in the Making?
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With final exams approaching this month and the end in sight for seniors, prom is in the spotlight. While prom and after-prom are seemingly rites of passage for high school students, what should be a festive and joyous celebration has in some prior years ended on a sour note.
Each year, one or more seniors orchestrate an after-prom party, and this year is no different. Following in the footsteps of two older siblings, a Scarsdale High School senior has planned and sold tickets to an after-prom party, this year to be held at a Manhattan club, 49 Grove. As reported in an online Scarsdale Maroon article (June 8, 2011) regarding the 2011 after-prom party, "According to many, the venue appeared overbooked. 'I guess they sold more tickets than they were actually allowed to,' said a junior boy. Club manager Tracey Hill expressed her frustration with [the SHS organizer]. 'He lied to us. I don't know how many [tickets] he sold, he told us 280, [but] I would say it was over that [number],' she said."
Tickets to this year's after-prom went on sale this week in a public parking lot in Scarsdale: $80.00 per ticket for the first 50 tickets sold, and $95.00 thereafter.
While after-prom venues have been oversold resulting in overcrowded and possibly unsafe conditions in the past, the tradition amazingly lives on. In some cases, students who prepaid exorbitant amounts for tickets have been denied access to the event, though, from a safety perspective, this year it could be fortuitous. The 2013 after-prom venue, 49 Grove, is a basement space as described in the following comments posted on the popular website Yelp:
"#1 most serious complaint: a basement bar WITH NO REAR EXIT. No way out except for the same tiny ENTRY STAIRCASE you entered. For 200 people? One narrow staircase? Clogged with people coming down, all wearing heels. Single-file. Are you kidding me? How does this place stay open; its a death trap and a body-count waiting to happen."
"49 Grove has terribly low ceilings, is carpeted and they jam people in like anchovies."
"Pay a ton of money for the chance to stand around in utter discomfort.... mill around in a *windowless* basement...? Pay a $20 door cover"
While there were some positive comments on YELP about 49 Grove, this does not appear to be a suitable venue for 17 and 18 year olds.
Of course safety is the primary concern, but if this year's after-prom is anything like the 2011 after-prom affair, $80.00 - $95.00 doesn't buy you much. According to the Scarsdale Maroon article with regard to tickets that ranged in cost from $70.00 – $90.00 for the 2011 after-prom party, "Tickets guaranteed entrance into the club, and the party organizers charged an additional $5 for unlimited, non-alcoholic drinks. There was no food served, other than pretzels and chips." Students and parents feel scammed by after-prom organizers who charge astronomical ticket prices that possibly allow only entrance (tickets appear to cost $20.00 for admission to 49 Grove for non-SHS patrons) to an overcrowded club and nothing more. Perhaps it could be said that parents should not provide students with funds to purchase after-prom tickets, but many students have money they have saved from jobs or other sources so they can purchase the tickets themselves.
From the online Maroon article about 2011 after-prom: "Multiple kids threw up upstairs and also broke tables, so the staff at the club closed it off and sent all of the guests downstairs." And so ended 2011 after-prom. Will this be the case for after-prom 2013...or worse?
This article was submitted by a concerned Scarsdale parent.
A Brush with Fame - My Meeting with the Iron Lady
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For reasons I cannot explain beyond the anglophilic enchantment occasioned by my abiding JAMES BOND STUPOR, I recently decided to watch THE IRON LADY for the first time. I had no idea it was so heartbreaking. Meryl Streep is astonishing in this role. I love the way historical events are woven in to the story of Thatcher's personal life and ascension to the world stage. But (politics aside), to see the (then) most powerful woman in the western world's decline and her Churchillian "nevah give up" spirit as she fought to defy and deny that inexorable decline, was devastating.
When my family lived in London in 2003, I went to the same, small, family medical practice as the Iron Lady. I discovered this one day when I was seated in the waiting room with my ailing 8-month-old baby on my lap. Twin rivulets of green goo surged from both of his nostrils each time he exhaled, as if in some sort of bacterial race to the finish. Not surprisingly, the seat next to us was unoccupied.
Tired of absentmindedly entertaining myself by secretly handicapping the mucus race each outing, and tired of cleaning it up, I looked to see a new person enter the room and thought "Wow, that looks EXACTLY like Maggie Thatcher!" At first, she was alone. I dismissed the thought, figuring "probably every dowager of a certain age in Belgravia has that hairdo and one of those suits. Thatcher must be a fashion trendsetter among the "smart" septuagenarians in the Knightsbridge crowd, and this gran is one of her Robert Palmer girl knockoffs"
But then, in a split second, four enormously burly men in suits trailed in behind her with eyes darting from side to side. Every Englishman in the room instantly scrambled to grab any reading material within reach and began to busily feign reading something, -- a newspaper or magazine ... anything to avoid the horror of eye contact with A FAMOUS PERSON. Some papers were even grabbed in such haste they were upside down! I was the ONLY one in the room who actually looked at the former Prime Minister, and as she scanned the place for a seat, I smiled at her. She beamed appreciatively and plopped down right next to us, chatting me and my baby up for the next forty-five minutes as we waited for our doctors. (YES SHE HAD TO WAIT TOO!!!)
What followed was one of the most fascinating and puzzling conversations of my life--3 parts small talk, 1 part politics/work-life balance. At times, just when I thought she was an elderly person who seemed to be losing it, she became incredibly lucid, and every bit the wily powerhouse I expected her to be. I asked her about how she balanced child-rearing duties with her rather high profile career ("Norland nannies are the best!"), and then I eased in to soliciting her opinion on Britain's purported role (by many resentful Brits) as "Bush's lap dog" in the war in Afghanistan we had just begun. She was bobbing and weaving like an old pro, artfully ducking a reporter's questions...
And then, suddenly, a different look came over her face and she seemed to slip back into the "dotty old lady" role again. She smiled broadly at us, as if we were old friends she'd spotted from across a great expanse of distance and time, and, switching gears seamlessly, she tenderly picked up my baby's foot ...."JOSHUA" she called out at a volume that had stood her in good stead in her many parliamentary debates, "The kingdom is yours!", she declared. She seemed to be shouting down an opponent at the same time as addressing both my son's green rivulets and his tiny foot, now nestled in her hand: "My tiny good man, the KINGDOM is yours!!!" At that moment, her doctor with the multiply-hyphenated terribly, terribly English name strode grandly into the room, putting on a show for the rest of the crowd... for anyone who might not have been aware of his A-list patient.
"BARONESS!!!" he summoned her...loudly..."Please come with me!!", and she was off....
When I saw the scene of "M.T" being checked out in the doctor's office in THE IRON LADY, all I could think was..."Where's the adorable baby with the sinus infection??"
Contributor Sharon Dizenhuz is a former reporter and anchor on New York 1 News and a Scarsdale mom.
SSTTE Religious School Open House Sunday April 7
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Scarsdale Synagogue Temples Tremont and Emanu-El, a reform Jewish congregation, will host an open house at its religious school on Sunday, April 7th, from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. The school is located at 2 Ogden Road in Scarsdale, and the event is primarily for parents and their children ages three to eight years old.
Attendees will be able to meet the professional staff, sit in on a typical class and engage in a dialogue about the school and its approach to Jewish education. Refreshments will be served.
About Scarsdale Synagogue
Scarsdale Synagogue Temples Tremont and Emanu-El is a Reform Jewish congregation committed to creating a covenant community of shared lives and real relationships. Founded in 1961, the Synagogue was joined by the memberships of Tremont Temple of the Bronx in 1976 and Temple Emanu-El of Southern Westchester in 2008. For further information about the religious school, please contact:
Rebecca Shubert, Temple Educator
Scarsdale Synagogue
Temples Tremont and Emanu-El
Tel: (914) 725-5175
