Schools: Trivia Contest, Letters to Santa

Students at West Side Elementary in Cold Spring Harbor participated in a Jeopardy-style trivia challenge focusing on subjects including history, geography, math problem-solving, spelling challenges, hula hoop competitions, tug of war, Simon Says and more. Known as Hollyrocks, the contest was created by Hollyrocks Entertainment, the creator of the original Brain Challenge.

Letters to Santa

Seventh and eighth graders studying Italian at Oldfield Middle School in the
Harborfields Central School District recently participated in the return of a tradition, the
“Progetto North Pole: Le Lettere in Lapponia,” or “Letters to the North Pole.”

Under teachers Dr. Craig Butler and Rosalia Sinatra, the middle schoolers wrote letters in Italian to Santa or the Italian “Befana,” which were then sent to Harborfields High School Italian classes. The older students then wrote back responses, also in Italian.

“This program had been done on a yearly basis, but with COVID, it was put on hold
for a couple of years,” Sinatra said. “Now the letter exchange is back. Our students enjoy it
immensely.”

South Huntington SCMEA

26 South Huntington music students were elected to participate in the upcoming SCMEA All County Festival for 2023. Rehearsals and performances will take place in March.

Rebecca Tripoli, Sophia Amorde, Addison Duffy, Aidan Valencia, Anthony Pantina, Ayden Hossain, Gracie DeMarinis, Ella Brenner, Xavier Keith, Kenji Flores, Luke DeMarinis, Asuka Cruz, Eton Yoon, Tatiana Pugliese, Valentina Valle, Jose Canas Garcia, Aiden Dearborn, Koji Flores, Luke Vaughan, Evelyn Guarini, Joseph Lantier, Emily Butterfield, Christhian Interiano, Grace Saks, Lucia Maniatis, and Liana Chetty

Hispanic Heritage Month

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Optimum invited students to participate in an essay contest for a chance to win a  scholarship. Optimum, together with co-sponsor TelevisaUnivision, announced the four winners along with the runners-up of its 2022 contest.

One of the runners-up was Brynn Gerde, an Oldfield Middle School student.

The student essay contest produced four scholarships of $3,000. Prizes have also been awarded to a dozen finalists in both the high school and middle school categories. To view the full list of finalists, visit

Optimum.com/hhm.

Thankful at Birchwood

Students at Birchwood Intermediate School took part in Operation Gratitude by writing letters to thank service members and first responders. Operation Gratitude encourages Americans to express their gratitude through hands-on volunteerism.




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