Great School Volunteer Week 2010
This spring, Learning Leaders Great School Volunteer Week will once again bring New Yorkers together to highlight the many ways volunteers can serve in schools and to celebrate the vitality of our public schools.
Great School Volunteer Week demonstrates the impact of well trained volunteers in fostering student success in our public schools. Throughout the week a series of magical learning events will be held in school classrooms, cafeterias and libraries throughout the city from May 17 – 21. These will feature community, celebrity and corporate volunteers who regularly contribute their creativity and time as part of Learning Leaders ongoing work supporting public education and parent engagement through volunteerism. Additional events will be held on May 25, 27 and June 15.
Schedule:
Tuesday, May 18
8:35 AM - 10:10 AM: Robin Hirsch. PS 55, Staten Island
9:15 - 10:10AM: Melissa Iwai. PS 6, Brooklyn
10:45 - 11:30AM: Liz Manocha. PS 20, Manhattan
Wednesay, May 19
9:00AM - 10:00AM: Sonia Manzano. CS 92
9 - 11AM:
YFOLLs/Alliance Bernstein.
PS 111, Manhattan
Thursday, May 20
1PM:
Tina Louise.
PS 79, Queens
1:15 – 2:15PM: Ellen Needham. PS 304,
Friday, May 21
9:15AM:
Miriam Cohen.
PS 261,
12:45 - 2PM:
Bridget Taylor.
PS 110,
Tuesday, May 25
9:00 - 10:00AM: Bob Morris.
PS 62, Queens
9:30 - 11:30AM:
Tracy Reese.
PS 242 and PS 175, Manhattan
Wednesday, May 26
1:45PM - 2:20PM:
Bernadette Peters.
PS 111, Manhattan
Tuesday, June 15
9AM - 2PM: Goldman Sachs Community Teamworks.
PS 307,
The Celebrity Great School Volunteers
Miriam Cohen
Author
An author of 30 books for young readers, including Will I Have a Friend? She attended the Newburgh Free Academy and Antioch College, and currently lives in Brooklyn.
Miriam will read one of her works to 1st Graders at PS 261, 314 Pacific St., Brooklyn.
Jacques D’Amboise
Dancer
D’Amboise was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, and has choreographed ballets for the New York City Ballet. D’Amboise danced in films, including Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Carousel (1956). He founded the National Dance Institute in 1976, which also combines music and art with studies of other cultures, histories, and literature. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Kennedy Center Honors Award, a National Medal of the Arts, a New York Governor’s Award, and an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Boston College.
Jacques will read How I Became a Pirate to 3rd Graders at PS 126, 175 W. 166th St., Bronx.
Robin Hirsch
Author
Robin Hirsch, an Oxford, Fulbright, and English-Speaking Union Scholar, has been the recipient of numerous awards both for his writing and for his performances. He is the founder and artistic director of New Works Project, an experimental theater company in New York City; and co-owner of the Cornelia Street Café in Greenwich Village. Hirsch’s translations, criticism, memoirs, poems and theater reviews have been published in Modern International Drama, Forward, The Village Voice, Western Humanities Review, The New York Jewish Review, The New York Times, El Urogallo, and Jewish Quarterly. He has taught literature and theater in universities and he is a longstanding member of the Writers Room in New York City.
Robin will work with two 5th Grades on poetry and writing at PS 55, 54 Osborne St., Staten Island.
Melissa Iwai
Illustrator
Originally from the central coast of California, born and raised in Lompoc, she moved to New York after receiving a BFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where she studied Illustration. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two year old son.
Melissa will read Tool Box Twins and do crafts activities with two 1st Grade classes at PS 643 Snyder Ave., Brooklyn.
Tina Louise
Actor
Tina was born near Brooklyn, she studied drama at Miami University, the Neighborhood Playhouse, and the Actors’ Studio. A nightclub singer in the mid-1950s, she came to Broadway, and by the early 1960s, she was shuttling between Hollywood and Europe. Tina is fondly remembered for her stint as movie star Ginger Grant on Gilligan’s Island.
Tina will read What Does a Bee Do to 1st and 2nd Grades at PS 79, 147–27 15th Dr., Queens.
Sonia Manzano
Actor, author
Best known for her role Maria on Sesame Street, Sonia Manzano has been a presence on Public Television since the 1970s. After 10 years as an actress, Sonia began writing scripts for the series and has 15 Emmy Awards as part of the Sesame Street writing staff. Sonia also wrote for the Peabody Award winning children’s series, Little Bill, for Nickelodeon and for a short time wrote a parenting column for the Sesame Workshop website called Talking Outloud. She is also the author of two books No Dogs Allowed and A Box Full of Kittens. She lives in New York City with her husband Richard and their daughter Gabriela.
Sonia will present a read aloud of A Box Full of Kittens for 3rd and 4th Graders at CS 92, 700 E. 179th St., Bronx.
Bob Morris
Author
A frequent contributor to the New York Times Sunday Styles section, where his Age of Dissonance column ran for eight years. He’s been a commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and a contributor to the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, and Travel + Leisure, among other publications. He is also a playwright and the author of two picture books, one for children and the other for reading-averse adults. He grew up on Long Island and now lives in New York City.
Bob will read to two 2nd Grade classes from his book Crispin the Terrible and play ukulele at PS 62, 97–25 108th St., Queens.
Tracy Reese
Fashion Designer
With an innate desire to create beautiful things, Detroit native Tracy Reese headed for Manhattan in 1982 to attend Parsons School of Design. Reese has worked at some of the industry’s top fashion houses, and has become a mainstay in the fashion industry as she continues to develop a strong design philosophy by staying true to her specific point of view: bright colors, unique prints, intricate patterns and plenty of frock!
Tracy will read Ellie: The Perfect Dress for Me to 2nd Graders at two schools: PS 175, 175 W. 134th St.; and PS 242, 134 W. 122nd St., Manhattan.