About 40 members of the Merrick Kiwanis Club, the Calhoun High School Key Club and the Merrick Avenue Middle School Builders Club loaded up vans full of food and toys and distributed the goods among families throughout the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District last Sunday. Students at elementary schools in the Merrick and North Merrick school districts, along with the MAMS and Calhoun, collected the toys in recent weeks. The Kiwanis Club collected food donations outside of local supermarkets. more

The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District Special Education PTA and the Community Parent Center will present the third annual Fair for Transitioning Students with Disabilities on Tuesday, Jan. 19, from 7 to 9:30p.m. in the Calhoun High School cafeteria. For more information, call Cheryl Gitlitz at (516) 992-1349. To register, e-mail MartineTyson at mmtys@optonline.net. The event will feature a panel presentation for parents and students about life after high school. more

Tzvi Lewisohn, a Calhoun High School senior, loves to win. Basketball, bowling, you name it, Lewisohn is a competitor. But, he is quick to note, more important than winning is sportsmanship. “We always congratulate the other teams,” Lewisohn, a member of Calhoun's Challenger bowling and basketball teams, says with a smile. “We don't want them to think we're out to win; we're just trying to have fun.” Of course, it doesn't hurt that both teams are undefeated for the past two years. They have not lost since the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District started the Challenger basketball league for special-education students with a handful of other Nassau County school districts in 2008. more

The shooting at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, sparked a national discussion on teen violence. There were calls for more metal detectors and more security guards at schools. Yet, what too few people focused on was the underlying social environment that influenced the incident: The shooters were socially alienated to the point that they thought opening fire on their peers was their only sense of empowerment. more

Three Mepham High School soccer players were recently awarded All-County and All-Conference honors, including Anthony Ippolito (All-County), Stephen Polimeni (All-Conference) and Anthony Duranona (All-Conference). Joining them at right was James Koester, the boys' varsity soccer coach. more

A recent string of fires at Calhoun High School in North Merrick has prompted an arson investigation, officials say. According to Vincent McManus, division supervisor at the Nassau County Fire Marshal's Office, there have been six suspicious fires at the school since Nov. 19, three of which the North Merrick Fire Department responded to. more

The Mepham High School varsity cheerleading squad recently placed second at the Universal Cheerleading Regionals. The win earned the team a bid to the UCA Nationals in Orlando, Fla. The team will be conducting fundraising for the trip in the near future. Above are, from top to bottom, Jenna Sidor, Jamie Taratko, Brianne Mulligan, Kayla Donnelly-Smith, Remi Gurdon, Alyssa Barbieri, Nicole Altomare, Breena Sherlock, Lauren Warner, Samantha Sepe, Michelle Cristina, Kristal Sedita, Kathy Tota, Taylor Labate, Stephanie Mojica, Kristen Ferrara, Krista Barbieri, Samantha DeLuca, Nikki Stahurski, Nina Proscia, Erica Schaab, Samantha Maddalena and captains Jahniece Hall and Cali Curry. more

Craig Papach, Kennedy High School's athletic coordinator and a 19-year phys. ed. teacher, had long heard the stories of poverty and loneliness, and he wanted to help. So, on Thanksgiving morning, he and his family piled into their car and made the trek from their suburban home in a quiet Wantagh neighborhood to a tiny church on Beach 94th Street in Queens. They went to lend their hands and, equally important, their ears to a day-long effort to aid the homeless. Papach was one of 10 Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District teachers who joined roughly 100 volunteers from Rock and Wrap It Up, a Five Towns-based nonprofit group founded by Syd Mandelbaum, to feed hundreds of impoverished street denizens, some of whom had not eaten for days. more

East Rockaway High School senior Danny Quadrino, 18, is living his dream as an actor on Broadway. He has made his debut on the Big White Way in the revival of the musical "Bye Bye Birdie." He just filled in for the starring role of "Hugo" in this week's matinee performance. more

For more than a week, Calhoun High School senior Tyler Seaman has looked for the right words to tell his classmates how he feels about them. On Thursday after press time, he was preparing to stand in front of his fellow students, teachers and parents, and share a speech of thanks. In return, students and faculty were preparing to take to the Calhoun auditorium stage to sing, dance and perform in the school’s first student-faculty talent show to benefit the Chordoma Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding a cure for this extremely rare form of cancer. more