St. Agnes set to hold its 2024 Dinner Dance

The St. Agnes Cathedral School is hosting its 2024 Dinner Dance at The Grand Lannin in Eisenhower Park on Saturday, Feb. 3.

This annual gala recognizes families and individuals for their continued support of the school and Catholic education, and helps raise funds for the school’s operating budget.

Honorees Carol and Francis Ruchalski will be presented with the St. Thomas Aquinas Award for their continued contributions to the Catholic school and the community at-large.

The Ruchalski family is well known in Rockville Centre for their ongoing commitment to raise awareness of pediatric cancer on Long Island and help raise money for research being conducted at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories that could provide new treatment options.

Honorees José and Tanya Prince will be presented with the St. Catherine of Siena Award for their continued commitment to Catholic education.

Dr. José Prince serves as Surgeon-in-Chief at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park, where he leads a team of pediatric surgeons. He is also a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the director of the Laboratory of Pediatric Injury and Inflammation at the Feinstein Institute’s Center for Immunology and Inflammation. His wife, Dr. Tanya Prince, specializes in obstetrics and gynecology and is also a clinical assistant professor at the Zucker School of Medicine.

The 2024 Dinner Dance will also recognize Mary Brower, assistant principal of the St. Agnes School, for her more than 15 years of dedicated service to the school.

Mary Brower, assistant principal of the St. Agnes Cathedral School, started her career as a teacher’s assistant and substitute at Hewitt Elementary in the Rockville Centre School District, before becoming the computer teacher at St. Agnes in 2006.

During her tenure with the school, she witnessed as technology became increasingly more advanced. Eventually the students shifted away from the older bulky Mac computers to individual iPads and devices.

She moved into an administrative role in 2016, as the technology coordinator at the school, and in 2021 was officially named the new assistant principal at St. Agnes.

In recognition of her nearly 20 years of dedicated service to the school, Brower will be presented with the St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton Award for Dedicated Service to Catholic Education during the 2024 St. Agnes Cathedral School Dinner Dance.

The event will take place at the Grand Lannin, 1899 Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow, on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 6 p.m. For tickets, reservations, journal ads and more information on the upcoming gala go to StAgnes-School.org.