More than 30 students from the North Bellmore School District were selected for this year’s All-County music festival, hosted by the Nassau Music Educators Association. Rehearsals and concerts are taking place from Jan. 7-18. 

Fifth and sixth grade students from the band, chorus and orchestra were selected based on NYSSMA solo performance scores and teacher recommendations.  

Congratulations to the following students: 

John G. Elementary Dinkelmeyer School: Ethan Andreu, Elliana Fidacaro, Arianna Lettieri,Brooke Murphy, Ella Piazza, Brooke Sheehan and Ella Sjoberg. 

Martin Avenue Elementary School: Alex Caba, Isabelle Dang and Lylah Jakubowski. 

Newbridge Elementary Road: Cecelia Barone, Andrew Boylan, Nina Cannistraci, Marion Chelsea DeJesus, Hunter Outsen, Arielle Zhang and Maya Zucker. 

Park Avenue Elementary School: Marco Artale, Veronica Calise, Anaya Chandhok, Caleb Cheung, Hadley Hollander, Elora Rosello and Destiny Zosike.  

Saw Mill Road Elementary School: Sienna Burmann, Ryan Diaz, Judith Guzman, Kerha lorvena, Vincent Merle, Gianna Toledo and Eliana Weissman. 

Five orchestra students will also participate in the Long Island String Festival Association’s Nassau Intermediate festival from Feb. 27-March 1. Those students are Arianna Lettieri (Dinkelmeyer), Marion Chelsea DeJesus (Newbridge Road), Lucia Rodriguez and DestinyZosike (Park Avenue) and Vincent Merle (Saw Mill Road).

Click here to view the North Bellmore Musicians Bound for Regional Restivals slideshow.

 

Date Added: 1/12/2026

 

A trio of toy drives at Saw Mill Road Elementary School District will bring joy to hundreds of children this holiday season. The Students Against Destructive Decisions club and Danielle Brocco’s second grade class both collected toys for the John Theissen Children’s Foundation. Michelle Mittler’s third graders donated toys to Cohen Children’s Medical Center.

On Dec. 18, John Theissen visited the school to pick up the donations. Sixth graders from SADD and Ms. Brocco’s second graders gathered in the lobby to listen to Mr. Theissen as he explained the origins of his organization, based in Wantagh. He talked about a girl, Tasha, who was in the hospital with him and gave him a teddy bear, inspiring him to start his first toy drive in 1992. Since then, it has grown from delivering 800 toys to sick and underprivileged children that first year, to about 130,000 toys last year. Students emptied the donation box, put all the toys in bags and helped load up his car.

“I feel really good about how our school is helping other children and giving them a good holiday,” SADD club member Nathan Smith said. “I hope they know that people care about them.”

“It’s amazing how he started this because of another person’s nice gesture,” Angelina Chen said about Mr. Theissen. “It feels awesome to know that these gifts can help underprivileged children.”

The SADD club, under the direction of Keara McNamara, made several signs by hand to hang around the school to promote the toy drive, which ran from Dec. 1-17. They also made announcements every morning.

Ms. Mittler has been involving her students in a toy drive every year for about a decade. Her family makes an annual holiday donation to Cohen Children’s Medical Center for the care they gave her daughter. Students are encouraged to contribute a new, unwrapped toy, and Ms. Mittler personally delivered the donations on Dec. 15.

“I like to involve my class,” she said, “because it teaches them about generosity and compassion.”

Click here to view the Saw Mill’s Elves Make Big Impact With Toy Drives slideshow.

String students from North Bellmore’s five elementary schools came together for the annual District Orchestra Winter Concert on Dec. 8 at the Brookside School. Proud parents, siblings, teachers and administrators filled the auditorium to enjoy holiday and winter tunes. 

The young musicians learned the concert music together during early morning districtwide rehearsals over the last several months, as well as during their small-group lessons. The fifth grade ensemble was conducted by Patrice Ryan and the sixth grade group was led by Lisa Uckardes. Individual school winter concerts are also taking place throughout December. 

Date Added: 12/9/2025

Integers, rational numbers and the coordinate plane may seem like advanced math concepts, but sixth graders at Saw Mill Road Elementary School are mastering the topics with ease thanks to a creative project.  

Students had to plot positive and negative numbers on a coordinate grid. Then, they connected the dots to reveal a mystery, fall-themed image. The pictures included acorns, footballs, ghosts, leaves, pumpkins and turkeys. The sixth graders then colored in their images to create lively mathematical creations.  

 

Date Added: 12/2/2025