Over 50 faculty and staff volunteers arrived bright and early on a Saturday morning to support 350 students and their families at South Middle School’s 6th Annual Books and Breakfast event. Faculty and staff worked alongside students in the kitchen preparing food, serving in the cafeteria, hosting information sessions, arranging games, and more! Student volunteers were from Student Government and the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) program. Students from Ms. Kara Tancredi and Ms. Nancy Tancredi’s Home Economics classes helped to prepare the food prior to the big day. Mr. James Wenzel, Home Economics teacher at Temple Hill Academy volunteered with his twin brother, Mr. Mark Wenzel who is a Special Education Teacher at South Middle School.

The biggest attraction of the event were the books. School librarian and NFA graduate, Ms. Valeri McMurtrie, coordinated the book give away for the event. Hundreds of brand new books were given out throughout the event. “Books are selected multi-culturally and at a range of reading levels for middle school. Parent donations and donations or reduced cost offerings by First Books, a not for profit, make this event possible with the amount and range of books that we offer.”

A photo booth was donated and worked by photographer Mr. Bisti, husband of SMS teacher, Mrs. Janet Bisti.

7th Team (Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Carey, Mrs. O'Malley & Ms. Spellman) led cafeteria wide trivia games "Are you smarter than YOUR 7th grader?" Families and students competed to answer classroom content based questions to win prizes.  

There were games/relay races in the gym run by SMS teachers Ms. Tuttle & Ms. Murphy.

Mrs. Bisti & Mr. Dumont led a session on creative character writing via the Hudson Valley Writing Project. Both SMS teachers are teacher consultants for HVWP.

An ENL information session was led by SMS teachers Mrs. Rivera, Mrs. Mejia-Jenkins, & Mrs. Jasmin.

Mrs. Hubbard and Mrs. Cacase hosted a table to make craft monsters with students and their families.

Tables were set up around the cafeteria that provided helpful information for students and parents alike.

Information and activity tables included:

• Newburgh Clean Water Project
• TAP at Boys & Girls Club
• Face Painting was led by talented SMS alumni artists and current NFA students Jaxyn Diaz, Katherine Vidal, & Fiona Shackleton
• Andrea Merrill & Ms. Lakeya Stukes gave information about NFA West Campus
• Newburgh Free Library
• Team Newburgh
• Girls on the Run – South Middle School currently has two teams of Girls on the Run
• Newburgh Girl Power
• Author and Teaching Assistant, Ms. Glenda Faison-Crawford spoke about her book, The Adventures of Pumpkin Jacksonand signed copies for students.
• South Middle School Parent Teacher Group (SMS PTG)
• South Middle School school store
• Safe Homes of Orange County presented about Internet Safety

Live music was provided by teachers and special guests Mr. BJ Antonelli (Instructional Technology Facilitator (ITF) on guitar and vocals, Mr. Rick Santacroce (music teacher) on piano, Mr. DeGiacomo (husband of Ms. Conchetta Carbone) and guest vocalist Assistant Principal Mr. Vincent Brancato.

A special sneak-peak performance of Annie, Jr. was given by students as they prepared for their weekend performance.

Project IAM donated 300 notebooks and Casa de Avivamiento donated folders that were given away. Mr. Ian Berger also donated books that were given away.

The event was coordinated by Ms. Conchetta Carbone and Mr. Alex Sokolinski.

More photos can be found: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wrZTO-imv8qKAuqrIDbmjNXUYuE4Jp8I?usp=sharing