Today nearly 100 families and over 300 people gathered at Kellenberg Memorial High School for our 5^th Annual Breakfast with Santa.  Before Santa made his appearance everyone enjoyed a breakfast of French toast, pancakes, bagels, donuts, coffee and juice.

Shortly after 9:30 A.M. the cafeteria exploded with excitement and children of all ages began dancing, cheering and jumping all about as Santa entered the room ringing his sleigh bells, ho-ho-ho-ing and crying out “Merry Christmas!  Merry Christmas!”  Before departing for the North Pole to finish his last minute toy-making, Santa was kind enough to pose for a picture with every boy and girl in the room.  As they left, Santa’s elves presented every child with a candy cane, stuffed animal and a book to read.

This very delightful family morning ended with over two dozen raffle prizes being won by many happy children.

All the faculty and the administration of St. Martin de Porres Marianist School pray that this Season of Advent would be a time of true preparation for the coming of Jesus into our hearts this Christmas.

How quickly this school year is passing.  Thanksgiving has already come and gone and we are already in the middle of Advent.  Before departing for the Thanksgiving Holiday, the first graders joined in a feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and pumpkin pie.  Afterwards they joined the rest of the school for our Thanksgiving Prayer Service.

See photos from Breakfast with Santa, the First Grade Thanksgiving Feast and Thanksgiving Prayer Service by clicking on the photo link to the right.

For this month’s  lunch menu click on this link: December Lunch Menu

Keep your eyes open for the coming of the invitations for Breakfast With Santa.

Click this link to print out your own reservation form:

Reservation Form for BWS

Click here to view November Lunch Menu

On Tuesday morning the entire school gathered in the Sacred Heart Commons to pay honor to the men and women who have served and are still serving in the American armed forces.  The children were joined by three members of the Catholic War Veterans of America, Post 1938, Bethpage, New York.  Joining us was Joe Marsiello who served in the Navy, Jack Batt who served in the Army and Fred Camera who served in the Marines.

After Mr. Holian led the children in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, Miss Placid and the Fourth Grade Chorus took center stage.  The fourth graders sang several patriotic songs before the 1^st and 2^nd graders entertained everyone with a special musical tribute to our guests and all the men and women they represented.

Please visit the Photo Page to see all of the pictures.

On Friday, November 8^th, Prof. Gary Schmidt, a Long Island native, flew in from Grand Rapids, Michigan to share with us his story of St. Martin de Porres.  Prof. Schmidt grew up in Hicksville, but his career as a college professor and writer has brought him to Calvin College in Grand Rapids.  Prof. Schmidt teaches children literature, medieval literature and writing at the college.  Prof. Schmidt is a prolific author of children’s literature and young adult fiction. His most recent novel, Trouble, was published in 2008 by Clarion. He has received two John Newberry Honor Awards from the American Library Association, the first in 2005 for his novel Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and the second in 2008 for his novel Wednesday Wars.

In his travels, Prof. Schmidt came across in a bookstore, a book about saints who loved animals.  It was while reading a story about St. Martin and his care for the mice in the monastery that he was inspired to write his book about St. Martin.  Martin de Porres, the Rose in the Desert, is the children’s book which tells the story of Martin’s life.   Prof. Schmidt spent the day meeting all the children from Pre-K to 8^th grade.  He told them stories and encouraged them to become good readers and writers.

At the end of the day, each child went home with his/her own copy of Martin de Porres, the Rose in the Desert.

The contestants in today’s spelling bee could!  Twenty-nine children from 4^th grade to 8^th grade competed this morning in our annual spelling bee.  The younger grade students held their own against their older counterparts advancing well into the later rounds of the bee.  By the last few rounds though, just 6 members of the junior high remained in the competition.  Soon it was only two contestants left.  Both were 8^th graders.  Lauren Atkinson and Christian Gray went back and forth for several more rounds of words before Christian was finally able to out-spell Lauren.  Congratulations to Lauren for her second place finish and to Christian for being declared this year’s Spelling Bee Champion!  Go to the School Photos link to the right to see all of today’s contestants battling for the title.

You are cordially invited to

attend the fifth annual 

Breakfast With Santa 

on Saturday,

December 7, 2013

9:00 A.M.

KMHS Cafeteria

Watch for the mailing of the invitations!

We had a glorious day yesterday for our day-long celebration of the life and work of St. Martin de Porres.  Please view all the many photos which captured the spirit of the day.  Click on the photo link to the right to see all the photos.  We hope you enjoy viewing the photos as much as the children did their celebration!