Discovery Workshops Were A Success
Discovery Workshops Were A Success
To the Editor:
On Saturday, February 10, the Newtown Junior Womenâs Club and the Newtown Board of Education presented its 9th annual Discovery Science, Math and Technology Workshops at the Newtown High School. This program is available free of charge to Newtown students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The generous donations from the Newtown Savings Bank and Taunton Press helped us to provide this hands-on educational program to over 350 children and their parents.
As in the past, each workshop leader was a volunteer from our community as well as outside the community. This year we were lucky enough to have 30 leaders. We are so grateful to all of the leaders for their hard work and support during the many months of preparation. Without these leaders and the members of the Newtown Junior Womenâs Club devoting their time and energy to this program would not be available to enrich the lives of the children in our community.
The Newtown Junior Womenâs Club would also like to thank the many other community volunteers who played a part in the successful day. Many students from the Newtown High School and Middle School spent their Saturday morning assisting NJWC in every capacity from escorting and/or babysitting our children, assisting leaders, moving chairs, cutting bagels, etc. These students include: Nathan Taylor, Charles Rosentel, Mark Huot, Tom Ragusa, Andrew Rote, Brian Budnick, Sean OâMahoney, Nick Paproski, Matthew Kelly, Kelly Rodden, Katie Deweese, Robin Pacheco, Alison McEmber, Megan Steuer, Caitlin Dalton, Jennifer Haghpanah, Sonja Taylor, Caitlin Thursland, Lauren Reed, and Sarah Nahabedian.
We would like to thank Rich and Patty Barilliari and Dom Cisero from Dunkin Donuts on Queen Street, Eunice and Terry Lavery from Bagelman on Church Hill Road, Kathleen Reilly from Starbucks on Church Hill Road, Snapple and Motts USA. Their very generous donations of donuts, bagels, beverages and coffee have helped us to cover some of our expenses. Our thanks also goes to The Big Y of Newtown, Stop and Shop of Newtown, Hot Shots, Perrier Group, Brooks Pharmacy, Drug Center, Larry Whippie and the Newtown High School Band Parents and Newtown Hardware for donating materials for some of the workshops or helping our leaders.
The support of the Newtown school system is also greatly appreciated. The staff at the high school was wonderful, especially Rich Novia who handled all of our audiovisual requirements as well as our security and communication needs. Susan Henderson, the science department chairperson, who provides some of the supplies and helps to prepare the classrooms for the day. Carmelo Amadeo, for her technical expertise and support. Thanks also to Pam Fagan of Middle Gate Elementary School and Terry Merola of Hawley School for the use of equipment. Thank you Bill Manfredonia and his staff for opening up the high school to our children. A special thanks to Dr Reed and his office staff who were extremely supportive of our efforts.
Many thanks also goes out to the children and parents who attended, this is a huge undertaking and without your cooperation the day would not have run as smoothly as it did. Thank you to all who supported our Back to School Back Pack Program through your donations and other programs sponsored by NJWC through your support of our Scholastic Book Fair.
We hope everyone has an enjoyable experience discovering the joy and wonder of science, math and technology. By providing this program we hope the children have fun while learning as well as having an opportunity to spend that very important quality time with their parents or chaperones.
Sincerely,
Dawn Escoda and Maryann Ziman
Newtown Womenâs Club
PO 217, Botsford                                               February 12, 2001