Preparing for the working world

Larger businesses have had grand openings, but not many had the fanfare of a high school drum line pounding out loud, pulsating beats to herald a ribbon-cutting.

On Monday, in the hallway near the gymnasium of Lawrence High School the opening of the school store was announced loudly by the school’s drum corps and less noisily by the six students of the vocational life skills class that will be operating the shop that originally opened on March 5.

Located in what was a vacant room previously used as the faculty lounge, the store will feature several items, including coffee, chips, cookies and other assorted snacks, school supplies such as paper, pencils and folders, water, iced tea and popcorn popped by a small, old-fashioned-style popper.

“It was all the students working together that made this happen,” said Irene Tzivras, a certified rehabilitation counselor, who is the students lead teacher in a program run by South Oaks Hospital in Amityville.

The store is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from noon to 2:10 p.m. The half-dozen students, who have a variety of learning disabilities, have assigned responsibilities and will rotate those duties.

“The students did a business plan, wrote it and presented it,” said Terri Nugent, the administrative director of the Vocational and Transitional Services at South Oaks. “It was really empowering for them to think outside the box. It is reinforcing the skills they are learning and using in the volunteer work in the community.”

Along with their schoolwork and now operating the store, the students intern at Burlington Coat Factory and Trader Joe’s in the Five Towns area and are learning working skills such as item placement and floor management, Nugent said.

Currently, Viola Jackson is the store’s shift manager, Tobias Scott Jr. is the sales clerk, Julian Harrigan is the receiving clerk, Rebecca Fuents is the order clerk, Jonathan Savedra is the store’s accountant and Jasmine Arama is the advertising representative.