The Carnivale Virtual Gala was held Friday, April 17, and from the comfort of our homes, the MPH community came together for a truly amazing event! More than 175 parents, employees, alumni, and friends from all over the country joined us for an evening of fast-paced bidding, virtual chatting, and camaraderie. We were treated to performances by jazz musician
Noah Kellman '09
and even persuaded
Lizzie Sutphen
'08
to sing opera for us! In the end, we all raised a glass to MPH and the event generated over $130,000 to benefit the students and mission of our school!
First and foremost, a huge THANK YOU to our event chairs, Diane and Mark Wladis. For the second year in a row, their leadership and support resulted in a memorable and successful event. And in the weeks leading up to the Gala, as plans changed almost daily, we relied heavily on the support of our Gala Committee: Sophia Battaglia, Cobbie Brundin, Jake Hafner and Jennifer Hafner, Theresa Heath, Melissa Marrone, Deborah O’Malley, Claire Myers-Usiatynski ’72, Shelbi Pisciarino, Nicole Roberts, Jason Smorol, Karen Trivelpiece, and Amy Wildhack.
We're grateful for all who supported Carnivale--those who contributed our many auction items, our leadership-level
sponsors,
all of the
catalog advertisers
,
our raffle sponsor:
Skaneateles Jewelry
, and YOU! The Carnivale Gala was a testament of the strength of the MPH community--thank you!
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The Virtual Gala: fun backgrounds and chatting!
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The Gala Committee delivered gift bags to Patron ticket holders prior to the event!
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We're Never Too Old to Twinkle!
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Strings instructor Teresa Mirakian created an optional project for all grades -- a virtual concert! The following students participated in a remarkable community performance!
Take a look at the video below!
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Violin
Ileana Anghel, 10
Elise Aretsky, 6
Alexa Rose Battaglia, 7
Emma Bourboulia, 3
Mira Conrey, 8
Elise Eng, 8
Parmees Fazeli, 10
Alexander Fung, 9
Maxwell Fung, 11
Madelynn Huff, 9
Sergianni Jennings, 10
Fiona McReynolds, K
Caroline Mezzalingua, 8
Eddie Mirakian, 2
Vinny Mirakian, K
Danny Mirakian, Pre-K
Alaia Nizar, 6
Eleanor Pleskach, K
Owen Reckess, 6
Taeyang Reid, 4
Grace Toyama, 3
Adama Sana, 4
Mia Sakonju, 7
Natalie Storie, 11
Emma Winkler, 10
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Viola
Noor Chhablani, 3
Paul DiFolco, 9
Amitees Fazeli, 7
Anya Reckess, 4
Kari Maxian, 9
Carter Zimmerman, 7
Cello
Casey Beach, 10
Jesse Beach, 6
Yizhuo Bobby Li, 9
Sarah Capozzolo, 3
Nina Gonzalez, 7
Rafael Jennings, 8
Vincent Marrone, 3
Jeffrey Pisciarino, 8
Ajay Ulahannan, Pre-K
Bass
Matthew Roberson, 10
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2nd-Grade Presentations
Second Graders have been hard at work researching their chosen states, and this week they were ready to present! Several students created PowerPoint presentations that Mrs. Berry shared during their morning meeting. She then turned class over to them, so they could share their hard work!
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Middle School Announcements:
The YouTube Debut!
Each day we're seeing more connection between our faculty and students. This week, Mr. Spear debuted Middle School announcements on YouTube!
Check out the video on the right!
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Lower School Dance
This enthusiastic 4th Grader was eager to share his hard work on this week's Lower School dance assignment!
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Lunch with Colleagues
At Friday’s faculty meeting, some of the teachers commented on how they miss having lunch together. Now that we're all becoming pros on virtual connectivity...that was an easy fix! Several faculty members took to Google Classroom to meet, have lunch, and chat, which will likely become a weekly gathering of friends.
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Kindergartners Meet Special Guests
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The Kindergarten class is welcoming special guests to their class to learn about a variety of important jobs. The picture to the left is with Hon. Therese Wiley Dancks, a federal magistrate judge. Over two weeks, they'll also receive visits from:
Dr. Kathleen Congel (veterinarian)
Dr. Courtney Du Mond (child psychologist)
Mr. Todd Du Mond (farmer/owner)
Dr. Reba Hodge (vice principal)
Chief Kenton Buckner (Syracuse City police chief)
Many thanks to our friends for sharing their experiences with our students!
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Literary Circle
Mr. Zencka's AP Literature class created a virtual "literary circle" to discuss
The Great Gatsby
. The video on the right is a short clip of the 25-minute discussion with Mr. Zencka and his junior students.
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Join Ms. Yeager on her wildflower journey using
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Click on the link above to learn about Ms. Yeager's experience this week!
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This Week's Wildflowers
with Audrey Yeager
I recently saw some friends post on Facebook about Three Falls Woods in Manlius. I had never been there, so we took a venture out on a beautiful Sunday. This piece of land was recently taken over by the CNY Land Trust, which you can read about
here.
There were quite a few people, but everyone was maintaining a safe distance. The falls were gorgeous and the wildflowers were plentiful!
I know every week I say "this is one of my favorites," but Red Trillium most certainly is! It is such a popular and recognizable spring flower, that it even graces the cover of my wildflower field guide. Red trillium,
Trillium erectum,
are spring ephemerals, which means they have a super quick and short reproductive cycle in the spring. You will probably only see this flower in the next few weeks before the upper parts of the plant die back and leave the underground parts below. Many spring wildflowers adopt this early blooming and reproducing strategy to maximize the capture of sunlight before the upper leaf canopy of the trees grows in. The parts of this plant are organized in groups of three, hence the prefix "tri" in the name. There are several species of trillium that are so close together in their characteristics that it is very difficult to tell them apart, and they are therefore called a "species complex." At the end of my video, I also came across some white trillium,
Trillium grandiflorum
, too.
On the other side of the path were yellow trout lily,
Erythronium americanum
, flowers that have very distinguishing leaves. The leaves come up weeks before the actual flower itself. As a matter of fact, I saw clusters of these leaves a few weeks ago during our trip to Clark Reservation. The leaves are brown and green molted, and they usually sprout up as a single leaf or a set of leaves. Non-flowering plants contain the single leaf, whereas flowering plants will have two leaves. The seeds have a special structure that helps attract ants, which are the major pollinator for this species. Did you know that plants that are mostly pollinated by ants are called myrmecochorous plants (and the act of pollinating by ants is called myrmecochory)? This flower will grow in large colonies on the forest floor, which you can see in the video.
Be sure to keep up with
your checklist
, and if you have any suggestions on where we should go next, or if you have any questions, please
email me
! Happy flower huntin
g!
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This Week's Distance Learning Candids!
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Upper School Dance warm-up!
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Virtual Whiteboard in
Modern World History --
Brainstorm on the Cold War
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More Upper School Dance warm-up!
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Upper School Virtual assembly...180 students and faculty in attendance!
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Pre-K student receiving a letter from a 3rd-Grade student!
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Rainbow Day in 3rd Grade!
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Virtual Pre-K birthday party!
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Pets of MPH
This week's pets! Enjoy! Would you like your companion to be featured too?
Email us
your pet's picture and name...the more, the merrier!
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Spring Cleaning?
Each fall, members of the MPH Parents' Association collect gently used children's items for a
Polkatot sale, a consignment sale for the Syracuse community. With many of us doing some extra spring cleaning while we're home, they're asking that you consider putting items aside for this effort. They are specifically asking for toys, games, sporting equipment, books and baby items. No clothes, please! Questions? Contact the event coordinator,
Theresa Heath. Thank you!
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