The Stage Crew is:

Kayla Kerchus (Lighting Manager), Robert Pagan (Production Manager), Elizabeth Shaw, Chelsea Naruatan, Michaela Spencer, Mikyla Azim, Vivienne Sales, Katherine Marmol,Genesis Duque, Sydney Taylor, Joey Hahn, Nicholas Orhelein,  Caitlin Orhelein and Margaret Krapish ( Stage Manager)

Peekskill Holiday Drama Presentation
December 2 and 3

Operation Christmas Child

Last holiday season the Latino Culture Club was able to fill 33 shoe boxes to be distributed to children in impoverished areas of the world.

The Latino Culture Club is collecting new children’s items from ages 2 to 14 that will fit into a shoe box again this year.

 The club is asking for your help in collecting the following items.

Tee shirts, flip flops, pencils, pens, crayons, coloring books, toothbrush and paste, small games, toy cars, hair barrettes, head bands, crafts bracelets, necklaces, and rings, stuffed toys, puzzles or any other children’s items you can think of that will delight a child’s Christmas.

Please bring all items to Mrs. Santos, room122

Interact Farmers For a Day were: Caitlin Orhelein, Karen Archila, Priscilla Ayora, Cynthia Vele, Karla Hernandez, Laila Cunningham, Genesis Aldana, Yaritza Sanchez, Andrew Wise, Stephanie Gil, Josue Carresquillo, Mikyla Abdul- Azim,and Ariana Memoli

More on Peekskill’s  Yellow Brick Road

Shelly Banjo / The Wall Street JournalHistorian John Curran says this road inspired L. Frank
Baum.

PEEKSKILL, N.Y.?In “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the yellow brick road leads
to happiness.

In this Hudson River town, it ends in a parking lot.

For close to a decade, city historian John Curran has been waging an uphill
battle to preserve a collection of crumbling golden bricks tucked near a
commuter railroad station here that he believes inspired the yellow brick road
in L. Frank Baum’s famous children’s novel and in the movie classic based on
it.

He has pored over maps, lectured visitors at the city museum he runs, lobbied
the city council and even contacted the author’s great-grandchildren to convince
the town that the 50-foot stretch of yellow bricks he’s trying to memorialize
isn’t just a figment.

From the Oz-Stravaganza festival in Chittenango, N.Y., to be held June 3, to
a new yellow brick road on Main Street in Wamego, Kan., towns across America
have long laid claim to the Wizard of Oz.

Aberdeen, S.D., where Mr. Baum worked for many years as a newspaperman,
boasts a fantasy park called Storybook Land. Other parks include the Land of Oz
in Liberal, Kan., and Oz Park in Chicago, where Mr. Baum published his story in
1900. Drivers on Interstate 35 through Kansas can’t miss the Oz paraphernalia,
from shot glasses to baby bibs that read “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in
Kansas anymore.”

Not so here in Peekskill, a sleepy spot in Westchester County, where the
young Mr. Baum spent two unhappy years in military school.

“You go to South Dakota, Chicago or Syracuse, and you’ll find yellow brick
roads and sculptures and theme parks commemorating Baum,” said Evan I. Schwartz,
the author of “Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American
Story.” He lives in Boston and has joined Mr. Curran’s band of “Ozites” trying
to preserve the road. “But in Peekskill, some people don’t even know the yellow
brick road exists.”

Figuring out whether it’s the right yellow brick road isn’t easy.

Mr. Baum was born in Chittenango, east of Syracuse, in 1856. At the age of
12, the frail child was sent to the now-defunct Peekskill Military Academy on a
fall day in 1868. That’s all fact.

The lore is what happened next. Mr. Curran believes the 12-year-old took a
steamboat down the Hudson. When he got to the dock, he asked for directions to
the military academy and was told, “Just follow the yellow brick road.”

Maps show the road led from the river up the hill to the academy. Most of the
road has been paved over, but a stretch near the river is still made of the
original brick.

Mr. Baum seems not to have written anything about Peekskill’s yellow brick
road. He did write letters complaining about military school.

In one, he said, “They were about as human as a school of fish. They were
quick to slap a boy in the face or forcibly use a cane or ruler to punish any
student who violated?the strict and often unreasonable rules.”

Mr. Curran believes the ordeal shaped the Wizard of Oz. “Whenever Baum had an
emotional experience, such as his two years at Peekskill Military Academy, it
showed up in the book,” Mr. Curran says during his Oz presentation at the
museum. “Whenever the characters get off the yellow brick road, they get into
trouble.”

In 2005, a Fulbright scholar and artist persuaded John Testa, who was the
mayor of Peekskill at the time, to conduct an authenticity study on the road.
Mr. Curran uncovered maps showing that West Street, which leads from the
steamboat dock up a hill to the military academy, was indeed made of Dutch
pavers, a common yellow-hued brick in the Dutch-settled area.

The maps showed Mr. Baum had to have walked along the road to get to school,
Mr. Curran said.

But Peekskill’s Oz advocates have hit their fair share of roadblocks in
trying to get the city to care.

Last year, Mr. Curran teamed up with Westchester resident Deborah Polhill and
Americana sculptor Richard Masloski. They tried to get the town to finance a
life-size bronze cast of characters, including the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion,
Scarecrow, Toto and Dorothy. The price: $225,000.

At one meeting with town officials, Ms. Polhill sang an Oz song she wrote
called “Anything Can Happen.” But nothing did. City officials decided they
couldn’t afford it. They suggested that the group raise money from private
philanthropists.

“As most municipalities, we’re very tight on budget and we’re trying not to
raise property taxes,” explained Jean Friedman, a city planner. “We think it’s a
good thing to celebrate?but we don’t own the road itself and don’t have the
money.”

Mr. Curran went door to door on his own journey, plastering fliers of the
sculptures around town. “I didn’t get any calls,” he said. Meanwhile, Mr.
Masloski compiled a list of Peekskill Military Academy alumni to hit up for
donations.

“I don’t want to be too pushy, because I’m the artist,” Mr. Masloski said.
“But c’mon, Peekskill, get off your butt and do this, I don’t want history to
die.”

For now, the yellow brick road is being used as a parking lot for people
shopping and working in Peekskill’s quaint downtown. Richard Cerreta, who owns
the parking lot and the adjacent building, known as the “Standard House,” says
he isn’t against commemorating the literary icon but has no intention of footing
the bill.

“It would cost a small fortune to restore; there’s no incentive for me to do
it as a private owner,” he said.

Mr. Cerreta has one concern about maintaining the road and its history for
future generations: “Every time a new person hears about the yellow brick road,
I end up chasing people down the street who come to steal the bricks

Whiz Kids:  The Black Culture Club at Peekskill High School

Members of the student club raise money for cancer through a ‘Tree of Remembrance’ and a walk at FDR State Park

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Mrs. Decker, Jasmine Michitsch, Tiombe Cowan-Hudson, Troi Nolan, Ms. Robinson, Naloni Farrow, Gydal Sorrel, Nosazena Iyekegbe, Dottie Bradshaw

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Credit Shawna Robinson

CreditLiz Giegerich

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Name:  The Black Culture Club at Peekskill High School

Accomplishment:  Raising nearly five hundred dollars in October that will be given to Support Connection, a non-for-profit organization that provides support for people affected by breast and ovarian cancer.

Key to Awesomeness:  Walk into Peekskill High School this month and you will find a “Tree of Remembrance” dotted with colorful leaves of support. Passers-by are asked for a dollar donation for each leaf, on which a name is written in honor of a person whose life has been touched by cancer, of any kind.

The idea came from the advisor to the Black Culture Club, Shawna Robinson—who is also a security monitor at the school, a Peekskill High alum and a mother of four. It began both as a tribute to her sister who succumbed to cancer as well as in support of school nurse Mary Jane Decker, a breast cancer survivor.

She says the club of about twenty members has really bonded around this effort. “We walked in the beginning of October to participate in the “Support-A-Walk” at FDR State Park and created the tree project at school— the kids have been very excited to make a difference.”

The advisor said that students like Jasmine Michitsch, Troi Nolan, Gydel Sorrell, Naloni Farrow and Jacobi Clarke have contributed time and effort to the cause. “The members of the club have worked during their lunch periods and free periods to run the booth,” Robinson explains. “They will receive awards of community hours toward college.”

The Black Culture Club has been a part of the school since 1979, according to its advisor. Its purpose is to have a place for African-American students to become more involved in the community and give them a sense of their heritage while promoting feelings of self-worth, she says.

Jacobi Clarke said participating in this project has done just that for her. “I feel that it’s an honor to be part of the Black Culture Club, a club whose goal is to help others and to be a part of a bigger community. I love that we can all grow together in such a just cause,” she said.

 

 

The Athletic Department is sponsoring a Sports Carnival for all youth of Peekskill this Saturday, Oct. 22 from 9am until 12pm.  Many of our coaches will be there to provide fun activities for the kids and to introduce them to their sport. All these activities are free.  There will also be a closest-to-the-pin contest.  The charge for this will be $1 for 5 shots.  The prize will be an autographed Elton Brand basketball. 

No longer used PHS athletic gear and equipment will be for sale at very reasonable prices.  All proceeds will go to the creation of the Jason C. Paige Fitness and Wellness Center.  Please come join us for a morning of fun and stay for the Homecoming festivities.

Coach Bucci

Thank you Interact for a job well done (as always).

The club members who helped out in ths activity were:

Britney Rodriguez, Genesis Duque, Valerie Kropf, Barbara Cesh, Trent Shillingford, Holly Wallace, Karla Hernandez, Genesis Martinez, Vivienne Sales, Josue Carrasquillo, Katherine Marmol, Sheridan Alexander, Stephanie Gil, Margaret Krapish.