Celebrating Broadway — and supporting Rockville Centre schools

It was a night of stellar performances as a standing room only crowd was dazzled by South Side’s middle and high school actors during the 20th annual RVC Education Foundation gala. The elegantly-attired attendees clearly enjoyed the theme of "Celebrating Broadway” at the April 10 dinner at the Hempstead Country Club. Performers from the productions of “Annie” at the middle school and “Carousel” at the high school punctuated the evening during which former Village Justice Frank Yannelli was recognized as the gala honoree and music educators Karen Faust Baer and Gene Kaplan received the 2010 Ruth Fins Memorial Award.

In announcing the awards, Education Foundation President Delia Garrity said that some of the most important education takes place in the arts and on fields, not just in the classroom. Referring to Henry David Thoreau's "On Walden Pond," she spoke of the credit teachers deserve for identifying and getting students to use the voices they have.

Garrity also described Yannelli as a master of the art of living, and Baer and Kaplan as pillars of music education in the community. "Without music," she told the audience, "life is a journey through a desert."

The Rockville Centre Education Foundation advances creative initiatives and innovative programs that enhance educational opportunities for all students in the Rockville Centre public schools — initiatives that would otherwise be beyond the scope of the school district's budget.

Over the past 15 years, the organization has donated more than $300,000 to Rockville Centre public schools to underwrite projects. This year, it funded several proposals under a new initiative, Residencies Inspiring Students in Education, or RISE. This program was created to enhance the curriculum by supporting residencies of artists, scholars or professionals in the classroom. The residencies can be short-term or longer. They can encompass any discipline. This year, for example, a musical composer was hired to work with high school students to create and perform a unique composition.

Some of the foundation's past grants have funded:

A student proposal to redesign the high school student paper