During the second week of December, middle schoolers participated in the PTA-hosted “Tis the Season to Be Reading” fundraiser in the school’s library. Students attend a book fair during their ELA classes, and receive a raffle ticket with any purchase. At the end of each day, three tickets are selected and those students are awarded a book of their selection under $10. The money raised helps fund PTA-run programs and events for the students throughout the year.

The East Islip Chamber of Commerce recently recognized East Islip High School junior Kaili Sperling as a November Student of the Month. Sperling, who volunteers at November’s Business of the Month, All Friends Veterinary Hospital, was presented with her award by East Islip Superintendent John Dolan and Town Councilman Jim O’Connor.

Also honored as another November Student of the Month was RCK fourth grader Dakota Ruber, recognized for being one of three Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department “Start With Hello” contest grand-prize winners.

High school seniors Alexa Fusco and Christian Harty were named recipients of this year’s Suffolk Zone awards. Both students were honored at the annual Suffolk Zone Awards dinner, held on Dec. 3 at Villa Lombardi’s in Holbrook.

The Suffolk Zone Chapter of the New York State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance presents these awards to one male and one female senior student in Suffolk County who contribute to the overall positive outcomes of their physical education and health classes as well as their school. These students make an outstanding effort to be cooperative, honest, poised, self-confident, attentive, industrious and enthusiastic regarding all classroom activities.

“Alexa and Christian are always working to support the instructional efforts of the class, and are very deserving of this prestigious award,” said Stephen Restivo, East Islip’s director of health, physical education and athletics.

In the spirit of giving, East Islip High School’s boys and girls bowling teams, and coaches Harold Cooley and Judith Fischer, decided to help North Babylon bowling coach Sonny Casale, who recently lost his home to a house fire several weeks ago. 

EI’s bowling community hosted a fundraising event on Dec. 8 at East Islip Lanes which included bowling and a large basket raffle. The two local teams donated a gift basket with $100 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets, which was raffled off as one of the grand prizes, and collected $400 in donations from students for a gift card for Casale, which was presented to him by East Islip team captains Natalie Mavrich and Sonny Pico.

“Coach Cooley and I are very proud of how the kids eagerly responded to help another coach and give so generously of their time and money,” said Fischer.

As his high school’s winner of the 2019-2020 Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Award, sophomore Johnathan Yankus will represent East Islip at this year’s three-day HOBY New York Metro Leadership Seminar conference. It will be held from June 5-7 at Adelphi University in Garden City. The award honors exceptional leadership and community service.

HOBY is an annual leadership seminar open to sophomore students across America, providing more than 12,000 students the opportunity to spend an exciting weekend at various locations engaging in leadership development activities and seminars. Yankus will attend thanks to a donation from the Lions Club of the Islips, whose representatives Dennis Busch and Eugene Petraitis visited the school to present the student with a check and their congratulations.