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

As they circled the back field at Saw Mill Road Elementary School on Nov. 3, students experienced how easy it is to get some exercise. The annual Gobble Run was hosted by the physical education department to promote health and fitness.

Physical education teachers Alyssa Parker and Anthony Novello set up cones around the field, and every five laps equaled one mile. Students and teachers could run, jog or walk, and some hearty youngsters exceeded 20 laps during their 40-minute sessions. The teachers marked their index cards at the completion of each lap.

Each grade level had a chance to partake in the Gobble Run, which served as a launching point for a cardiovascular fitness unit in physical education classes. Ms. Parker and Mr. Novello said they want students to create lifelong habits that promote health and fitness by seeing that activity can be as simple as taking a walk around the neighborhood.

The annual event occurs between Halloween and Thanksgiving, and students had a partly cloudy but dry fall day to enjoy the time outdoors. For their participation, children were encouraged to donate candy at a donation box in the lobby. The candy will be given to the Bellmore Lions Club for its Polar Express holiday event in December.

Click here to view the Saw Mill Students Enjoy Fitness and Friendship 2 slideshow.