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INITIATIVES - 2007

Salmon Restoration - Students from Waterford High School and Great Neck School cooperate in a program to raise awareness of the history and plight of the Atlantic salmon. Funded initially by a grant from Millstone, additional funding was required to carry on the work. These funds will be used for the purchase of a necessary chiller and for enlarging the program to include additional Waterford schools. The high school students attend workshops given by the state DEP where they are trained on technical aspects. They apply that training to the set-up, maintenance and breakdown of the salmon tank.  The high school students also teach the Great Neck students about the salmon and train them on daily observation requirements. This is a yearlong project that requires presentations and a final paper. 

Cover-to-Cover March Madness - This initiative supports a program to improve reading comprehension and to create an opportunity for students to benefit from a reading for pleasure experience. Students participating in the program will meet in small reading groups with an instructor during the month of March.  On the last day of the program, the groups will gather together to share brief highlights of the books they have read.  Each group will also provide an illustrated book report to be displayed on the main lobby bulletin board. The initiative underwrites the cost of the books for approximately fifty students.

Cohanzie School Ballroom Dancing - With the current consolidation of Quaker Hill and Cohanzie Schools, a current initiative at Quaker Hill School has doubled in size an activity originally underwritten by a private citizen who is in need of additional funding.  This program exposes the children to the art and culture of dancing.  Character education encompassing respect and politeness towards each other is also fostered and practiced. Children learn how to behave in a public situation as well. The program is supplemented by student contributions. This program has left a positive and lasting impression on students in previous years.

Cass Gilbert and the Seaside Sanatorium - This grant will underwrite a public lecture at the Waterford Library on the architect Cass Gilbert with a special emphasis on Seaside  Sanatorium to be given by Barbara S. Christen, Ph.D.,  in celebration of National Historic Preservation Month. The presentation will provide a rare opportunity for students, the citizens of Waterford, and others, to appreciate an important National Register of Historic Places landmark here in Waterford and to learn about Cass Gilbert's significant contribution to American architecture.