Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you. Congratulations. Oh, where's my thing? That's fine. Jesus. Next, the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, RIYA, is a program for young people that were officially adopted by Rotary International in 1971. RIYA offers local clubs a special opportunity to take part in developing leadership qualities and good citizenship among our young adults. The local Rotary Club sponsors sophomores to attend a leadership camp at Springfield College this June. Our three recipients are Clara Choy, Julia Illingsworth, and Finn Jordan. [Applause] Jillian Thank you. You're welcome.
Oh yeah, look at that. You're going to be busy. There has been. So most of the work that's done through our labor management group um is done at the local level which is in every school. I'm happy to report that every school in our district follow schedule do it in two trucks. That was good. Well done. Well played. Um most of the work that is done um is done on the local level in every school building. Um Clifton Public Schools has a local team in every building in our district um where we find any type of idea or problem and we create that solution which is there it is. You got two up there Shar. Um so this is like an umbrella and I'll show what that umbrella is. So again, we have our local teams and then we have that district team. And this is what our district collab team looks like.
Is that correct? Yeah, well, that's correct. It actually happens a lot. And I think everything that that Rex is saying is spot on. I mean this you know the problem is the system and the way it's set up makes it very difficult and the model is not uh helping you know we need to be uh a system that's rewarded more for results and not the way that things are now but yeah you know unfortunately um I you know I work in the US I work I work in Mexico we we do various things we have you know stuff all over and we have clinical trials in both countries um in Mexico we have a little bit more options so we we can do broader right to try uh versus the US. The US has right to try but if you have cancer patients um when you need certain drugs you've got to apply to that company.
Good evening everyone. My name is Diana Fanso from the Polish National Credit Union here in Eastong Meadow. We are honored to present a scholarship to a deserving senior that shows leadership and and service to the community. Our honored recipient this year is Jacob Miller. Nice job. Nice job everyone. [Applause] Um, good evening. Um, my name is Kathy Stacio and I work with Hub International Insurance Agency local to East Long Meadow right in um, right on Shaker Road. Um, the agency has been a part of the East Long Meadow community for a long time, over 15 years. Um, and this scholarship was created to recognize high school seniors who will be continuing their education in the field of business. And this year's recipient is Michael Mandrella. Hello. And I'm presenting the Cloud9 Marketing Group scholarship founded by ELHS alumnist Dylan Pilon. Cloud9 Marketing Group is honored to be a part of the East Long Metal community.
So again, we have our union president and our superintendent who are are are at the very top. But then we break down um into each individual school as well as um you know uh labor group. Throughout the throughout the course of my career here, I've been I've been in the district for 22 years. Sharon's been here for about 15 years. Um, we've seen a a tremendous change over the course of our tenure where a lot of decisions have become twos and threes and threes and fours. Um, there's always going to be that administrator centered decision like snow days. Unfortunately, Dr. Robert Totosey has that task of making that ultimate decision and he's right or wrong 50 to 50% of the population. However, with our weather watchers, which is one of our success stories, we've been able to get our information and we've been made better decisions for our our students.
They don't have to give it to you. It just takes a lot of time and then the hospitals don't want you to to necessarily do it. So becomes very difficult. In Mexico it's a little easier. The hospitals will be you know will let you do that and and then you could get the drugs a lot easier. So yeah we we definitely do that. Jason, is there hope for cancer? Cancer is, I've said, and I think it sums it up, is the sum of all human fears. When you're told you have cancer, this is a terrible diagnosis. This is a uh this is the beginning of the end for most people, or at least in their minds, they fear the cancer and its mortality, but they also fear pain. And friends of mine who suffered from cancer had terrible pain. And uh it's not been a pretty situation.
This scholarship was created to recognize high school seniors who will be continuing their education in the field of business with a concentration in marketing. This year's re recipient, Jacob Miller. [Applause] Good evening. I'm here to present the Hugh O'Brien Award. Since 1958, the Hugh O'Brien Youth Foundation has been holding leadership seminars for 10th graders throughout the United States. These seminars held regionally at various colleges bring young people together to develop leadership potential to encourage and assist students in their quest for self-development and self-identification. To introduce potential leaders to today's leaders through informal seminars to provide exposure to the opportunity to explore America's incentive system and the democratic process. This year's student ambassador is Clara Choy. for the uh Matthew S. Barrett Memorial Scholarship. Uh this is this scholarship was established in memory of Matthew Barrett class of 2017. It is awarded to students who are planning to further their education with consideration to students who have exhibited strength and dependability in high school athletics.
So, where that was solely a one is now more of a two and a three and we're even moving into the fours and fives. So again, this all comes with our wonderful work of working together with our faculty. It's really lovely as a teacher, especially I don't even want to say that out loud. A as a teacher, it's lovely to have a voice. It really is. So some of our accomplishments, we've been Shar and I have been with at this together as facilitators for two years. Um um these are some of our major accomplishments that we've accomplished at the district level. Um we're not going to highlight all of them, but uh there's certain ones on here that are absolutely fantastic. For example, at the high school level, we have cost-free summer school. We've reduced failure rates by 20%. Um and again, that just came up in conversations that we've had with our teachers.
Is there hope and is there a lot of hope? There is definitely a lot of hope. I think you know we know when we have the drugs that we need to cure cancer. They exist. They just need to be applied. And so it's it's the drugs in the right combination and that's what you know some of the work that we're doing and others are doing trying to bring that forward. um where you know you do these combinations of immunotherapies and going into the tumor but you know sometimes also systemically but there's other you know ways to approach this and that that's actually working quite well uh we we we just need to be able to get it all together and get it uh you know through the system get you know FDA approvals but you know I think all the agents that we need to cure cancer we have we hear that cancer treatment and treatment of so many other diseases now can be individual ize that that for each patient has his or her own individually maximally effective treatment.
Uh this year we have five recipients. First Ava Guile. [Applause] Uh, next, Caroline [Applause] Lucassic. Uh, test and all. Kennedy Marino. [Applause] No. And last but not least, Michael Mandrella. Congratulations to all of tonight's recipients. I am here tonight to present the Mary Lou Donahghue scholarship. Mary Lou Donahghue uh was a nurse's nurse who served our district for 25 years and was the first director of nursing here in the district and many of the services that we enjoy today are the result of Mary Lou's hard work and dedication. So when she retired, we created a scholarship to be presented to a worthy student who's part going to be participating in a BS nursing program. And it gives me great pleasure this year to present the scholarship to Jamie [Applause] Bellarose. Congratulations. She would be very happy. So we have the Daniel P. Federici Memorial Scholarship.
What is working? What is our best practice? We've also allowed or we've allow, you know, thanks to Mr. Shahada with we allow uh food on half days. We're feeding students that never had, you know, food on half days before. And those are all things that have come up through just having our our our quarterly meetings. They just started out as ideas, simple. A teacher would come up and say, "Hey, what if we did this?" And we were able to do it. It's it's really incredible what we've been able to accomplish. And again, every one of these um that success stories that we have on here benefits our students and there really is a lot more at the local levels. There's so much at the local levels that we didn't even list for you. So, there's been a lot of research and this started out um at the at Ruckers University and we have now um joined hands with not only Ruckers but the NJA as well.
Is that part of what your work is focusing on now also? Yeah. So, so you know definitely a lot of cases are individual. you have different genetic uh aspects of the tumors and so that may change the medications that you use with the patients and so so yeah you really need that ability to take you know an individual approach. Uh the the key though is that we need lots of the weapons, you know, because there's lots of drugs that are out there, but you know, a lot of them are in development, but they're not FDA approved because they're only looking at them at that one drug by itself, not what it does in combination. And so, you know, the drug by itself may be very minimal and nobody really wants to develop it, but in combination, it's, you know, it's it's helpful. I mean, you you know, you have to have it's just like combination of safe.
There's four winners, four recipients of this scholarship. It is in memory of Daniel Federici, class of 2004. and it's awarded to seniors who are hardworking and and who may be pursuing an education in a trade. So I'll read the four names. Alexandria Callahan, William Delaney, Edwin Rivera, and Eden Rolf. [Applause] Good evening. The scholarship in memory of Corey Garwaki, class of 2005, is awarded to a high school senior entering an accredited college or university, who has proven exceptional community service and/or volunteer work with preference given to students considering a major in the field of communications. This year's recipient is Michaela Deloria. [Applause] So the Henry and Helen Johnson scholarship uh was established upon the death of Helen Johnson in 1998 and the fund investments are administered by the first Niagara bank uh uh as the trustee. Mr. Henry Johnson was a lifelong resident of East Law Meadow.
Um and what we're finding um or as as our our groups and other districts have progressed in this journey, we're finding that collaboration is bringing out better educational outcomes in both language arts and math. Um we're we're seeing that uh districts that do participate in labor management are getting more applicants and are not suffering from the teacher shortage. I'm not saying that we are not short teachers, but we're getting more applica uh applications on a regular basis than some of our colleagues in other districts. So, it's just a wonderful thing to share and broadcast out there that we have a partnership and a vested interest in both not only our students but our faculty as well. the teachers that are um involved at this at the local level also they're knowing that they have a voice that they can speak to their local admin and also they can reach the district collaborative with their ideas.
One number doesn't get it for you, right? But you have them all together and you can open the safe. And so, you know, that's that's what what we're seeing. And yeah, I think that uh you know, we're just trying to get all the pieces like approved the best we can and then sort of unite it together and and so it's it's a long process. That's why amending the right to try act would be we would be able to do that. Yes. Well, we we do we do it in practice. I mean, we do we're able to treat people in that way, but what we're trying to do is get in an official capacity of getting, you know, FDA approval. So this is has access to everybody because right now it's only access to very limited people. Jason, the idea of the cocktail is not totally new.
An award shall be made annually in their memory to assist in the furthering of education of an East Me High East High School students uh who have demonstrated good character and have had a positive influence on others and on the community. Provided the award recipient remains in academic good standing at his or her chosen institution of higher learning is intended that this is an award that will be made to the student during each subsequent year of enrollment. So it is a four-year scholarship. Uh, the first recipient is Gabriella Illingsworth. [Music] I think we're all on stage. I'm just going to go through the whole group right now. Um, Porter Carroll, Ava Guile, Jacob Miller, and Daniel Nicolubu.
It's been a gamecher because they actually are feeling heard and we're really we've really been trying to spread the word and this is another reason why we're here is we really want to spread the word and let everybody know what has been going on and what we're doing which brings us to our next part is sustaining the collaborative. So we have a great idea but how do we keep this idea blossoming? How do we get this to flourish? And what we need is everyone's help. you know, we would like to expand our group of 40 in into into more. Um, so we would like to branch out and have board representation um at our quarterly meetings, sometimes even in our local meetings. I think it's important that you guys see the collaboration, the collaborative efforts that we have uh between our building administrators, our faculty, our power professionals, and the partnerships and relationships that have fully blossomed.
It's been used in treating childhood leukemias very successfully and AIDS quite successfully. So you're saying that for many more diseases we need cocktails of drugs rather than sequential drug use. So what what we're finding in our our work is that, you know, we see pretty good results with four drugs. We see really good results with eight and we see spectacular results with 12. And when you use 12 drug combinations, that is what really starts knocking down cancer. Um and and and you know there's there obviously there's few to tweak here and there, but that really gets it and that's that's what we're seeing. We're focusing on aging and extending lifespan, but is this something which also is uh of use uh for treating younger patients as well? Well, so one thing is is that you know a lot of problems a lot of uh diseases one are are diseases of aging.
Good evening everyone. I'm uh honored and humbled to be here tonight to speak on behalf of the Kelly family and to present the Brandt Kelly Memorial Scholarship. Uh for those who didn't know Brandt, Brandt graduated in 1996 here. He was a friend of mine uh and he was a teammate on the football field. He was one of the toughest, meanest in a good way, but players I ever had the opportunity to play with or coach. He was a leader. Uh, and he had an unbelievable ability to raise the confidence in those who were around him. Um, he was very humbled. He understood that an individual was never going to set a team goal. Uh, this year's recipient is literally a spitting image of him. Uh there is going to be no doubt a conversation that he's going to be one of the best linebackers ever to step foot here in East Long Meadow High School.
And that's all we have. Any questions? Thank you. I have uh Mr. Paris, mayor. Yes, sir. Dr. I just have no no questions but two comments. First, thank you so much uh Miss Morola, Mr. Jagger for outlining um what our district collaborative looks like. Two comments. Mr. Jagger mentioned that um teachers are more likely to apply to work in a district that is known to be more collaborative. There's another piece of that. We have shown that we are better at retaining those teachers, right? This is not the beall end all, but that is a factor, right? When teachers feel heard, there's a better chance they're going to stay um in in that district. And the second thing is when we started this work, and we started it when I first got here six years ago, it has obviously evolved into something um much bigger and better than we anticipated.