East Hampton High Students Raise Funds for St. Jude's

Some pretty great kids in the community are working hard to help those in need.

East Hampton High School's Key Club held a Zumbathon fundraiser on Jan 16 to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospita.

“We were sure to choose St. Jude's as our donation recipient because as opposed to other organizations, 100 percent of proceeds received by St. Jude's go directly toward sick children,” said Key Club president Andrew Silipo, who also said that the Zumbathon and bake sales have raised $800 of their $1000 goal.
In other high school news, technology teacher Trevor Gregory is the recipient of a grant from the Greater East Hampton Education Foundation for robotics equipment. Last year, Mr. Gregory also won, and used the approximately $2500 for a 3-D printer.

In science news, there's a six-armed octopus in Robert Schack’s class. Known as both “the Bonactopus” and “Sextipus Maximus,” the creature “has been entertaining us,” said Schack. “We will soon try to teach her certain tasks in advanced marine science.”

Also in science news, Lisa Benincasa has four research students who will be presenting three projects at the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair on Monday.  Tyler Menold and Peter Davis have isolated non-sporulating forms of entomopathic fungi that could be used to safely lure and kill insect pests. Lindsay Stevens determined that a type of cell called a Tuft Cell serves as a marker or warning for precancerous lesions of the pancreas. Alex Osborne experimented with non-chlorophyll plant pigments that could be used to create electricity through solar cells.
       
Don't Miss: The high school talent show, featuring performances by the jazz band, the dance team, and others, will be held on Friday at 7:30 p.m. The event is open to the public; tickets cost $5. 

Key Clubber and sophomore Abby Roden attended the club’s divisional meeting on Jan. 29 at Westhampton High School. Key Club representatives from Southampton, Hampton Bays, Westhampton, Riverhead, and Eastport South Manor came to share ideas about fundraisers and to plan for the upcoming leadership conference in Albany, which EHHS officers Abby Roden, Eileen Espana, Jackie Messenger, and Amanda Calabrese will also be attending this March.

“Roden was awarded with the promotion of executive assistant to the Lieutenant Governor, a promising position that she well deserves,” said Andrea Hernandez, the club’s advisor.

The Bonac Dance Force, the competition team, has been invited to compete at the LIKA Invitational Championship on Sunday at Uniondale High School. In order to participate in this event, teams must have competed in a minimum of two competitions for the season and score a first or second place score at least once at those events.
       
There will be a reception for high school art students at the Parrish Museum on Saturday  from 3 to 5 p.m. to celebrate the opening of the student art show.