MIDDLE SCHOOL'S E3 DAY ENCOURAGES KIDS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Acting on its motto, "Everyone Matters, Everyone Cares, Everyone Learns," North Shore Middle School held it annual E3 Day on Tuesday, a Thanksgiving week tradition that promotes community service and civic mindedness.

During the day-long event, students participate in one of more than a dozen service opportunities, from singing and performing at the Glen Cove Senior Center, to raking leaves at a local park, to raising funds for cancer research in a Dance-a-Thon.  

The day kicked off with a "Breakfast Exchange" - a swap in which teachers collected canned and dried foods from students for donation to local food pantries, and in return the faculty served the students breakfast.

After a homeroom activity promoting the intrinsic value in "making a difference," students assembled in the gymnasium where high school students presented on their own experiences "making a difference," both locally and globally.  

It was then off to service activities, many at the Middle School, and others farther flung such as at district elementary schools where students helped out in the classroom, or at St. Boniface Church to assist in organizing the food pantry for the holidays.   

Sixth grader Sophie Blumenthal of Sea Cliff said she loves baking, and therefore chose the E3 Bake Sale as her service opportunity. In keeping with E3 values, she contributed her caramel brownies made with fair-trade chocolate to the sale, the proceeds from which were going towards the Crohns & Colitis Foundation.

Parent volunteer Magdalena Kotz helped oversee the "Looms for Love" activity which gave students the opportunity to make bracelets and get-well cards for children spending Thanksgiving in the hospital. "This is a great day," she said, "and should be a time for reflection." 

Later that afternoon, students once again gathered in the gymnasium for the closing ceremonies.  "You have done some unbelievable good works!" Middle School Principal Dr. Mark Ferris declared.  He then turned the show over to the "E3 Jam Band" an ensemble of faculty, high school and middle school musicians - and having put together some original tunes over the course of the day, they rocked, as the E3 Day service activities guide described,"expressing what cannot be adequately explained with words."

E3 DAY BY THE NUMBERS

2550 - number of cans collected for local food pantries 
$837 - Amount raised by the E3 Day Bake Sale for the Crohn's and                    Colitis Foundation
$300+ - Amount that the Crayons for Cancer" activity will help raise for               research 
$1,074 - Amount raised by the Dance-a-Thon for Cancer Research
$700 - Amount the 6th grade raised for UNICEF this year
3,147 - Number of pages read by students during the Read-a-thon that 
            raised more than $300 for Multiple Sclerosis Research
96 - Bags of leaves raked at Clifton Park in Sea Cliff by Middle School        Students