Pie-in-the-Face Concludes

A Monumental Achievement

for Cherry Avenue PARP*

This year, Cherry Avenue elementary students reached a pinnacle of success with their annual Parents As Reading Partners (PARP) program.

All Cherry Avenue students and parents were encouraged to calculate the minutes spent in shared reading; choice of reading materials could be fun as well as informative. An eight-foot-high wooden “Washington Monument” display on the front lawn of the school marked the PARP program’s progress. As the “minutes” climbed in number (as tabulated by the PARP committee), “Principal Stimmel” (depicted in a miniature photo) climbed higher up the “Washington Monument.”

To give the students and parents extra incentive to reach the goal, the PARP Co-chairpersons Mrs. Lillian Schweikert and Mrs. Nicole Wessels enlisted the help of Principal Dr. John Stimmel with a Principal’s Challenge. If the students read 200,000 minutes, Dr. Stimmel would take a Pie-in-the-Face.

The students not only met, but exceeded, the 200,000 minutes challenge, so Dr. Stimmel made good on his promise. Gathering the entire student assembly on the front lawn to witness the fulfillment of his challenge, Dr. Stimmel was cheered by a roaring crowd of very enthusiastic readers.

To reward each grade for doing such a fantastic job, Dr. Stimmel agreed to getting pied NOT ONE, but SIX times! A student from each grade-level was randomly selected from the “minutes” cards to hand deliver a pie to Dr. Stimmel’s waiting face.

The students’ excited outside voices rose to higher decibels as each whipped-cream pie was prepared.  It was hard to tell who was having more fun, the students or Dr. Stimmel himself. While many of the girls enjoyed the spectacle, some of the boys expressed their desire to be pied as well, asking Dr. Stimmel if they could trade places for the chance at licking whipped cream. By the end of the six-pie event, the cream-covered Dr. Stimmel thanked everyone, including the PARP organizers, volunteers, and parents, for making the PARP Principal’s Challenge possible by exceeding the goal. After, he acknowledged the six lucky students who made the special pie deliveries: K- Charlize Strittmatter, 1- Ava Eriksen, 2- Stephen Miller, 3- Harry Wessels,4- Lorenzo Pensabene, and5- Amelia Flaumenhaft

“I think it is safe to say,” PARP co-chair Mrs. Lillian Schweikert offered with amused understatement, “that the children and Dr. Stimmel enjoyed themselves.”

* First developed in 1978 by the State Education Department and since 1987 promoted as a New York State PTA initiative, PARP (Parents As Reading Partners) is a voluntary effort that has been successfully embedded in Sayville Schools for years. Each PTA in all three Sayville elementary schools runs the three- or four-week home-reading activity that encourages daily participation between parents and children.