The West Hempstead School District held its fourth annual community arts day on May 18 at the secondary school, providing students from across the school community an opportunity to engage with each other in arts and crafts, sports clinics and other fun activities.
“It’s an awesome opportunity to bring our community together,” Laila Sales, the district’s director of fine, performing and culinary arts, said. “Every year we come up with a theme. We have a committee, and we think about things we can offer, from food to activities, all revolving around the arts.”
Sales explained that an artistic element inspired all of the activities. This year’s theme, “Lights, Camera, Action!,” featured stations that were inspired by popular movies, which have premiered over the years. At the “Snow Dogs” (2002) station, hot dogs and snow cones were served, while the “Wonka” (2023) station offered ranging sweets, including lollipops, gummy bears, fudge and taffy. At the “Wicked” (2024) space, students decorated their witch hats, while at the “Rapunzel” (2010) station, students were invited to clip in a bejeweled hair extension.
“We are celebrating arts and everything revolving around it,” Patricia Scollo, the district’s assistant director of pupil personnel services, said. “It’s an opportunity for the community members to come together, have some fun and celebrate.”
At the zoetrope station, students had the opportunity to dabble in one of the earliest forms of animation. Zoetropes are cylinders with vertical slits down the side and a sequence of images inside — and when spun, the images appear to be moving.
“Animation is a series of cels where the image changes, and when you spin them, they give the illusion of motion,” Lori Stahl-Van Brackle, a technology teacher for the seventh and eighth grades, said.
She added that zoetropes are a two-cel animation, which “is just two images that flip back and forth, and that flipping gives a sense of motion.”
Some of the zoetropes available for students to color in were printed designs, but secondary school students created some original outlines available to fill in. During the event, younger students colored in their zoetropes to take home.
In addition to the arts, the community also engaged in a range of sports clinics hosted by West Hempstead Secondary School students. Organized by Michelle Lambo-Maron, the school’s assistant principal, three sessions, broken up into age groups, gave students the option to take part in clinics for various sports. They offered flag football, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball and track.
“One of our objectives this year was to create an opportunity for our student-athletes to take on leadership roles and share their talents with our younger kids,” Lambo-Maron said. “So they created a sports clinic, developed the drills. They came up with everything, from how to register, to timing, and the sports included, then opened it up to all K through sixth grade students.”
The events, both sports and arts, provided secondary school students the opportunity to engage with the students in the lower schools. They showcased the projects they work on at the upper school and what activities the district provides to uplift all students.
“We send a message that West Hempstead is ‘one team, one family,’” Scollo said. “We are here for our students and the children in the community. Anytime we can come together to celebrate them, we’re all for it.”
