Education Foundation hosts 31st annual Gala

Hundreds from the Rockville Centre school community gathered at Gatsby’s on the Ocean in Wantagh last Saturday for the RVC Education Foundation’s 31st annual fundraising Gala.

One of the foundation’s biggest sources of funding, it relies solely on the generosity of donors from the school community to help pay for new public school initiatives that are aimed to enrich, engage, and expand beyond the normal scope of academia to help foster innovation both inside-and-outside of the traditional classroom environment.

This year, the Education Foundation Gala honored Sharon Sheppard, assistant director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, and Rena Riback, founder of the Anti-Racism Project for their continued work in the community.

For the last three years, Sheppard and Riback have helped provide food to hundreds of families in the community through Sharon’s Food Pantry. This combined effort to start a food pantry began at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and has continued to help feed members of the community ever since.

On Saturday night, both Riback and Sheppard were honored for their hard work, dedication, and drive to create such an important initiative.

During the event, members of the Education Foundation also presented the Ruth Fins Award to South Side High School business department teacher and facilitator Peter English, who helped pilot the highly successful International Baccalaureate business management program.

With his help, the program grew from a class of only 25 students to a full-fledged program with more than 140 students enrolled for the upcoming school year. He was also an instrumental part in rebooting the school’s DECA charter, providing students with an opportunity to use their skills in different business-based competitions.