Thanks from Texas
Cassandra McClennan, the Girl Scout who collected 566 pounds of school supplies, personal items, clothes, and books, received a thank you from the receiving school in Humble, Texas. ##M:[more]## Excerpts from Marlon Farr’s letter received by Cassandra and her mother, Linda, include:
“Please tell everyone involved that they will never know how much these items will mean to those in need. Just to let you know, we are not only providing school supplies to our public school children, but we are also working with some of our area private schools to make sure their kids are taken care of.”
“It is just so refreshing to know that people care, and that there are people out there like yourself.”
“Lastly, Linda, I want to personally say ‘thank you’ to you. You must be very proud of your daughter and what she has accomplished. You should be. I know that her hard work also turned into very hard work for you. One of the greatest rewards of a parent is to see their children grown into responsible and caring adults. Your reward is taking place before your very eyes — enjoy it while you can. Congratulations for the job you have done, as a parent, to instill these characteristics in your daughter, Cadette Girl Scout Cassie McClellan.”
Although Farr was one of the fortunate ones who was largely unaffected by the hurricanes, his mother-in-law and brother-in-law lost their house in Orange, Texas, and are living with Farr and his wife.
Cassie wrote to WWP News: “Thank you so much for taking the time to tell my Katrina backpack story in the West Windsor-Plainsboro News. (October 7) The article was terrific as well as the photo. I received a message through my school (Grover Middle School) from an executive at the Nassau Inn willing to underwrite the shipping costs.”
A Successful Talent Show
What began as a simple idea of a 12-year-old playing a musical instrument to raise funds to benefit the American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina Relief efforts grew into a talent show held on Saturday, October 29, at Village School. (The News, October 21). Close to 80 kids, from kindergarten to high school participated.
The event was attended by more than 350 people and the donations reached $7,”211 on the day of the event and more donations are still coming. The program was conducted by the children in both emcee and talent segments.
Performers included Flat Soda Band with Dean Axiotis, Sam Boyles, Dylan Cohen, Rohan Rath and Luke Vinci; Prayer for Success, an Indian classical dance performed by Suma Bojedla, Maya Hariharan, Aditi Penu, Sabhya Gupta, Shreya Mandloi, Tanvi Purohit, and Kiran Vaidya; and the Sitar, an Indian string instrument, played by Nitin Sajankila, Aman Rastogi, and Sameer Sajja.
More presenations included a juggling act with Michael Weintraub, Justin Chen, and Jeff Lee; “Dancing with the Wind” with Maansi Jayade, Purva Khanapure, Uma Atre, Ratuja Kulkarni, Ruchita Zaparde, Shreya Marathe, and Shruti Marathe; a piano concert by Raymond Zhang; and Hip-Hop dance, a fusion of Indian and Western dance forms by Aanchal Khurana, Zia Opie, Gabrielle Opie, Priya Saksena, Ananya Shah, and Varsha Sundararaman.
Violin music was presented by Alma and Caroline Chang; and Keerthana Krosuri presented a poem, “Tears of Fire” focusing on the need for our compassion and caring for the victims of Katrina.
Shottafunk! band included Mike Pfeiffer, Dylan Roth, Gian Fernandez, Tony Kosar, Ben Rose, Rex Surany, Julian Ames, Rohit Kabra, Allison Trevorrow, Alina Valero, Chris Xu, Mike Bond, Sabina Carlson, Eitan Paul, and Greg Steiner. An Indian Classical dance was performed by Shashank Raja, Aditi Rajgopalan Aishwarya Rajgopalan, Nina Sajankila, and Srinidhi Rajput. “Skater’s Waltz,” a ballet, was performed by Jessica Fox, Kate Henry, Hope Jin, Fallon Kean, Isabelle Meiers, Abby Nelson, Mia Pangasnan, Corrine Smith, Alicia Wezel, and Marissa Wiener. “Dance Fusion,” a combindation of classical and contemporary Indian dance forms, was performed by Ratika Misra and Aashima Rastogi.
Music performed on the Tabla, an Indian percussion instrument, was presented by Ashwin Amurthur, Akash Mukkavilli, Suraj Anandalwar, and Siddharth Padki.
“I Feel Like a Woman,” a jazzy pointe dance, was performed by Jessica Fox, Hope Jin, Caitlin Maliszewski, Alison Richman, Jennifer Rogers, Alicia Wezel, and Marissa Wiener; and Sharon Gao played the piano.
Tae Kwon Do Academy demonstrations featured Anne Balicusto, Kyle Houck, Avnish Dighe Abhishek Bhaduri, Ankit Mallik, Dharin Nanavati, Marc Osherson, Noah Shinbaum, and Dimitry Khrabrov. Ayanna Gill concluded the program by singing “The Star Spangled Banner” to a standing and highly-charged audience.
Emcees of the program included Rachel Carandang, Sameep Chandrani, Zach Krakower, Keerthana Krosuri, Darian Lanzetta, Abhishek Saksena, Priyanka Satyaprakash, Nick Schmidt, Ciara Schoenauer, and Parth Shah.
Volunteers included Alex Hall, Carlo Ingato, Amani Saeed, Sarika Sajja, Brian Schoenauer, Kathryn Schoenauer, Gary Verma, and Mallory Wang. Sound and music was managed by Jesse Opie. Rayyan Ahmed, Amir Munir, Mohit Sahni, and Ajay Sajja captured the entire program on their video cameras.
A Red Cross volunteer, Sean Stiefel, congratulated the students for their outstanding effort and commitment. Abhishek Saksena, a High School South student, was recognized for his outstanding contribution to the efforts of this fund raiser and was presented with a certificate from the American Red Cross for his humanitarian efforts and generosity.
One hundred percent of the donations collected were forwarded to the Red Cross.
Help for New Orleans
Maurice Hawk School students and staff are responsible for raising more than $6,”000 helping La Salle Elementary School in the East Baton Rouge School district where more than 5,”000 preschool to grade five New Orleans students have been located. Hawk students raised more than $3,”000 and received matching funds from Commerce Bank.
The school has also organized events including book donations from a book fair, a clothing drive, and toys and school materials are being collected. The students have also found new penpals in the LaSalla Elementary School.
