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Greenport

This is it! Anyone who’s the parent of a school-aged child will be saying, “Summer is over.” But don’t forget; Greenport schools don’t open to students until Monday, Sept. 13.

As I normally do this week each year, I’d like to welcome the new members of the Greenport Schools family. We start with Joe Tsaveras, who’ll take over as elementary school principal. While he’s not new, Todd Gulluscio has a couple of new titles: director of discipline and athletic director. Joshua Rachoff is the new K-12 art teacher; Jessica Bosak is the music leave replacement; and Stacy Woodhull is the sixth-grade leave replacement teacher. As Diane Jester retired, Sue Klipp will take over as one of two elementary teacher assistants. Matt Hansen is the new PE student teacher, Pam Goodland is now chair of the fine arts department and Christine Aviles-Nott heads the foreign language/ESL department. Welcome all!

GHS Class of SSLq67 alum Steve Burt’s thriller “FreeK Camp” (psychic teens in a paranormal thriller) has won a double gold medal from the Mom’s Choice Awards for best juvenile fiction ages 9-12 and best young adult fiction, ages 13 and up. The book previously won the Beach Book of the Year Award at the N.Y. Book Festival and was runner-up at the Hollywood Book Festival. It’s also a finalist for the USA Book News Best Book Awards. Congratulations, Steve!

The GHS All-American cheerleaders will hold a car wash Saturday, Sept. 11, 9 a.m. to noon in the school’s circular drive. Freewill donations accepted. Proceeds will help offset the cost of the girls’ trip to Florida over Christmas vacation to cheer at the Capital One Bowl in Orlando. Please show your support for the group of girls, who spend the better part of each year supporting their fellow athletes.

Hey, all you Greenport gridiron fans! Our football season opener finds us returning to the olden days of Saturday afternoon football at GHS. Be there Sept. 11 at 2 p.m. to support the Porters, who will play host to Babylon.

Having good cause to celebrate this week (because they’re having a birthday) are my cousin Mike Heaney (whom I was so happy to see at this year’s reunion), Janna Cisterino and Dr. Vinnie Claps on the 10th; Chris Czartosieski, Darryl Volinski, Al Langenus and T.J. Jenkins on the 11th; Maliek Yoskovich and Mike O’Brien Sr. on the 12th; Skye Prichard on the 14th; and Matt Kapell and Leslie Kruk on the 15th.

Dancing to ‘The Anniversary Waltz’ are Kim and Perry Corazzini, who will celebrate their 22nd wedding anniversary on Sept. 10; Tina and Darryl Volinski, who will celebrate No. 20 on the 15th; and Shelly and Joe Moore married 26 years, also on the 15th.

As I mentioned last week, Jim, Jenn, Dan and I attended the 8-28 Restoring Honor Rally in Washington, D.C. What an experience! We, along with 300,000 to 500,000 others, gathered near (or as near as we could get) the base of the Lincoln Memorial. Glenn Beck kept to his promise to make it a non-political event, but it sure was spectacular. Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is a superbly motivational speaker and the rally, as a whole, was one I won’t soon forget.