Valley Stream students honor their heroes

Superheroes are a part of our culture — Marvel’s “The Avengers” recently eclipsed the $1 billion mark in worldwide box office sales, comic books have been around for decades and kids have their favorite superheroes proudly displayed on their underwear. Often though, people fail to realize the real heroes in life, but for the seventh graders at Memorial Junior High School, they know the people who are truly important.

Memorial held its first ever Hero Day on May 18 where students and their heroes came together for a special assembly. Students in the seventh grade wrote essays about their personal heroes. Out of more than 300 submissions, 12 students were selected to read their essays aloud in front of their classmates, teachers and heroes.

Kim Cazzetto, an English teacher at Memorial, organized the event and said discussions with the students initially began in October about Hero Day. In class, students started learning about the proper ways to structure an essay and read books with protagonists and heroes.

“We focus on appreciating and acknowledging heroes in literature and in history,” Cazzetto said. “I don’t want kids to go through life thinking the only heroes are those that are public figures or fictional characters.”

Students invited their heroes to Memorial to show their appreciation and to honor their heroes’ dedication. An entire section of the Memorial gymnasium bleachers was filled with heroes.

Cynthia Rodriguez wrote an essay about her aunt Mercedes and spoke of her aunt’s compassion and good-natured spirit. “She would love you even if you were a good person or not,” Rodriguez said. “She would never treat someone like they don’t belong on Earth or don’t deserve love.”

Howell Road music teacher Louis Panacculli was selected as Gabriella Reyes’ hero. “He made a difference in my life, not only in music, but in caring,” Reyes said. “I love him.”

Claude Parola spoke about his dad, Claude, who is a medical doctor in the area. When an earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, Claude’s dad did everything in his power to help those in need. “He called some of his friends, which were also doctors, to set up a trip to Haiti so he could help people in need,” Claude Jr. said. “This is why my dad is a hero.”

Memorial Principal Anthony Mignella was happy to see such a large number of heroes come out for the event and was proud of his students for their efforts.

“I had the opportunity to preview some of them and I was almost crying in my office, they touched me so much,” Mignella said of the essays. “It was wonderful to see how they shared their inner-most feelings with their peers, but I really think it’s wonderful that now everyone gets a chance to see what makes someone special. It helps build empathy, it helps build sympathy, all those important characteristics that we want in a middle school child.”

Cazzetto played a video montage of students talking about their heroes and keynote speaker Helen Yamen, a nurse at Franklin Hospital, told the story of how she assisted a woman in need while at a department store. Memorial Assistant Principal Bret Strauss also shared the story of his hero — his father, which was proceeded by a group of seventh graders singing Mariah Carey’s “Hero.”

Just minutes after the first ever Hero Day at Memorial wrapped up, Mignella and Cazzetto said they were excited to start planning next year’s event. “For the first time doing it here I think it went really well,” Cazzetto said, “and we are already talking about how to improve it for next year.”

“It’s just a great symbol of community and how important and vital the role of a hero is in a child’s life,” Mignella said. “It’s something that we’re going to continue doing and we’re going to build upon it.”