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Byram Hills

The Perfect Game Changing & Memory Making Dip

August 25, 2022 by Ella Manners

Byram Hills Varsity Field Hockey team in 2016 wearing pink socks for breast cancer awareness in October.

 

A simple five layer dip can have a quite powerful unifying effect, to many’s surprise. The Byram Hills High School Varsity Field Hockey team made this discovery all the way back in 2016, and it changed the game forever for them. 

I, myself, was a member of this team from 2016 to 2020: my freshman year of high school. Our team was composed of an unproportionally large group of freshmen talent, and by talent, I mean we were losing all of our games. The team had previously been a force to be reckoned with in the county, but after losing much of the team at graduation, they suffered with a lack of experienced players along with a new coach that 2016 fall. The group assembled was young, unorganized, and very timid – understandably. 

The captains had organized a team dinner to try and increase morale and create a more tight-knit, cohesive team. My mom, Palma Manners, volunteered to make dip for the dinner; little did she know the impact this dip would have on the coming season and the following years. The dip itself is simple (and definitely worth trying yourself): it is a beautifully constructed five layer stack of (from bottom to top) 1 (16 oz) can of refried beans, 1 (16 oz) container of sour cream seasoned with a ½ package of taco seasoning mix, about 10 ounces of guacamole, 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese, and finally topped with 1 large tomato, chopped. 

“I only started making it your freshman year when you started doing team dinners,” she reflects. “I had offered to make it your very first team dinner, and it was such a hit that it was requested for every team dinner after. It became a bit of a tradition.”

A tradition indeed! It gave the team something to bond over, a sort of unifying ritual. Every week for the rest of the season, we would get together, over dip, and slowly form the close-knit team that we had wanted to be. We didn’t win many games still, we were still a young team with much to learn, but we started actually playing together, we found a rhythm. We even started writing “TOGETHER” on our legs in sharpie before every game as a reminder of this.

Every year for the next three years that I was playing and my mom was making dip, some players graduated and we gained new ones, but the tradition remained, and each year we would become a stronger team. The dip was such a simple tradition, but it became iconic for our group, and we still all reminisce about it today. I don’t remember any scores from that first year or the result of any of those games after, but I do remember the players, many of whom are still my best friends two years out of high school, and the memories we made over chips and dip every week.

 

Filed Under: Inside Thoughts Tagged With: Byram Hills, Ella Manners, Field Hockey, Fun Dip, High School Athletics, Team Bonding

Horace Greeley High School Quakers League CHAMPS!

November 12, 2021 by The Inside Press

Horace Greeley High School Quakers beat the Poughkeepsie Pioneers 28–20 on October 30th in a highly competitive rematch to become champions of the Independent League with a 7-1 record; last time Quakers were league champs was back in 2010. This year’s team motto was TRUST THE PROCESS and it certainly worked. Congratulations to Coach Kearns, his staff, players and families.  — Ron Wohl

Filed Under: Happenings Tagged With: Byram Hills, Champs, New York State Champs, Quakers

Byram Hills High School Inducts Nearly 90 Seniors into World Language Honor Society

November 10, 2021 by The Inside Press

Eighty-seven Byram Hills High School seniors have been inducted into the World Language Honor Society, an achievement that reflects their hard work and dedication to the study of French, Italian or Spanish.

In a virtual ceremony Thursday night, World Languages Chairperson Melissa Stahl congratulated the students and encouraged them to continue their language studies. To become a member of the honor society, students must have an A or A+ final average for three consecutive years. Ms. Stahl expressed her hope that the students “continue as lifelong learners to pursue a meaningful relationship with other languages and cultures.” 

 Brandon Lutz, a 2010 Byram Hills graduate, delivered the keynote address, lauding the value of learning world languages. Mr. Lutz took AP Spanish at Byram Hills and became fluent in French, Dutch and German at The University of Texas at Austin. He praised the inductees for this “absolutely amazing achievement. Pursuing foreign language is immensely challenging and reaching this level shows not just grit, but highlights you all as ambassadors of a more globally minded world,” he said. 

After the address, each inductee’s name was read aloud.

The students inducted for French are:

Sydney Charron

Elizabeth Deeks

Rebecca Frieden

Jacob Geyman

Nowell Gibson

Abigail Krupa

Lucy Kwittken

Nora Lowe

Julia Lucchino

Eleana Morse

John Ndocaj

Nicolas Paslar Bunemar

Ella Pilchik

Emily Pizzorusso

Tanya Postian

Gina Schiliro

Georgia Schwartz

Arianna Tabankin

Sebastian Vasquez

Priscilla Zhang

The students inducted are Italian are:

Luke Abbruzzese

Olivia Addeo

Lily Auster

Zoe Banko

Nicolas Bisgaier

John Blackmar

Irene Byrnes

Amelia Chung

Sofia Cobos

Gabriella Colabello

Brooke Goldin

Samantha Grech

Alicia Huang

Alexandra Ioffe

Jessica Kahn

Hannah Rippy

Michael Rocco

Olivia Tedesco

The students inducted for Spanish are:

Alex Araki-Kurdyla

Derek Araki-Kurdyla

Morgan Aronsky

Lily Auster*

Edith Bachmann

Olivia Barry

Alex Berkman

Sophia Berland

Ryan Bernstein

Nicolas Bisgaier*

Evan Boekel

Joseph Brown

Elizabeth Corelli

Talia Deutsch

Ross Eagle

Danielle Eder

Reese Ertel

Chloe Fang

Danielle Freiberg

Samantha Glusky

Arielle Goldman

Benjamin Goldman

Eliza Goldman

Jake Goldman

Hallie Gordon

Sara Grgurovic

Dylan Haber

Olivia Hazan

Ariana Jones

Jamie Kaplan

Owen Kenny

Owen Kirkwood

Kate Levy

Sydney Levy

Alyssa Margolin

Matthew Marinozzi

Charly Melo

Jillian Nichols

Nicolas Paslar Bunemar*

Bennett Rakower

Max Rosh

Lucy Ross

Maximus Santos

Dylan Schimel

Brady Schlosser

Katerina Schmidt

Chloe Siegle

Arianna Tabankin*

Alexandra Weiss

Hayden Weiss

Lila Zacks

Jane Zeltner

Robert Ziff

*Second language inductees

Filed Under: Happenings Tagged With: Byram Hills, World Language Honor Society

Area Volunteers Working to “Tie the Town Pink” to Meet SOUL RYEDERS October Goal

September 23, 2021 by Grace Bennett

“We are so excited to see our community adorned in PINK again this October!” said Deborah Goldman, Byram Hills resident and member of the SOUL RYEDERS board of directors. Goldman and a group of helpful volunteers in Westchester communities will be busy “tying the town pink” in big, bright and beautiful pink ribbons beginning October 1. The goal? To support SOUL RYEDERS 2021 8th annual Tie the Town Pink Awareness Campaign, selling pink ribbons in Byram Hills, Rye, Harrison, Rye Brook and soon in other surrounding towns. Why the ribbons? Here’s how “SOUL RYEDERS” describes its TieTheTownPink mission:

“Once again, this year’s goal is to tie our communities together in support of anyone affected by any type of cancer, regardless of age or gender. All proceeds from the campaign benefit SOUL RYEDERS’ community-oriented, cancer-related programs and services. The secondary goal of this campaign is to emphasize the importance of annual cancer screenings. Because of the pandemic, many of us continue to cancel or delay essential annual medical check-ups, mammograms, skin cancer and other screenings. SOUL RYEDERS wants to encourage our community to make these appointments now for their own health and well-being.

Started in 2014, TieTheTownPink is one of SOUL RYEDERS’ most successful campaigns in both the donations it brings to the organization, as well as the legions of volunteers ages 6 – 86 working together to deliver and tie hundreds of ribbons throughout our communities on the first day of October. Last year over 50 volunteers participated in a safe and socially distant way! They drove around our towns to tie ribbons on more than 750 homes. This rewarding volunteer opportunity is one that can be alone, along with family or as part of an organization or club. The Covid-19 pandemic continues to place a strain on many of our local businesses and therefore, SOUL RYEDERS is once again donating ribbons to those businesses that have supported our TieTheTownPink campaign since 2018 as a THANK YOU for the continuous generosity they spread throughout our community.

SOUL RYEDERS announced new ribbons this year! “Our new ribbons are made from 100% natural burlap material, are environmentally friendly and have been handmade in Wisconsin.”

TieTheTownPink ribbon sales began in late August and will continue throughout September culminating in adorning and tie-ing ribbons October 1st – 3rd.

The ribbons are available for sale online on the SOUL RYEDERS website. SOUL RYEDERS is proud to support our community through our programs, events and campaigns. Your generosity enables us to  continue to be a resource for so many in our area. SOUL RYEDERS® is a community-driven organization supporting and connecting those impacted by cancer regardless of gender, type of cancer or age.

For more information, visit: https://www.soulryeders.org/

Filed Under: Happenings Tagged With: Armonk, Byram Hills, Cancer Awreness, Cancer Awreness Campaign, cancer screenings, SOUL RYEDERS, Tie the Town Pink

The Byram Hills Education Foundation Funding Our Students’ Futures

August 17, 2021 by Ella Ilan

The View Sonic at Byram Hills High School

As a Byram Hills parent, I have often marveled throughout the years over the state-of-the-art technology and innovative programming available to our students in our local public school. Byram Hills families have been fortunate to have the Byram Hills Education Foundation (“BHEF”) brainstorming and funding visionary grants complementing an already stellar school district. The BHEF is a non-profit group that has awarded over 430 grants totaling over $5 million since 1994.

The mission of the BHEF is to enhance the education of all students in the Byram Hills school district by funding grants that encourage learning and personal development. The BHEF is governed by a board of directors representing a broad spectrum of the community. The board is comprised of 27 voting directors, consisting of parent and community volunteers. In addition, a group of non-voting board members include Byram Hills Superintendent Dr. Jen Lamia, a teacher representative from each school, and representatives from the board of education.

The BHEF funds two main types of grants: insta-grants and signature grants. Insta-grants can be submitted by teachers at any point in the year, are capped at $2500, and must be implemented that same school year. Signature grants are typically bigger in dollar, can be implemented over two years, and typically follow a lengthier review process. The BHEF relies entirely on donations from parents and the community to fund grants.

Wampus Art/Courtyard

Facilitating Getting Kids Back to School

Last summer, in response to the schools being shut down and the challenges posed by the Covid pandemic, the BHEF fast-tracked their grant review process and supplied cutting edge ViewSonic Virtual Classroom technology, an idea spearheaded by Dr. Andrew Taylor, Director of Technology at Byram Hills, that allowed our teachers to implement effective hybrid learning for students in different locations through a touch screen monitor and accompanying software that served as a hub in each classroom. They also outfitted every school with new shaded outdoor spaces for socially distanced learning and fresh air mask breaks.

“This was very quick from idea to inception,” recalls Jessica Bond, BHEF president, “but we were able to get it done because of the great collaboration and communication we have with the administration.”

The BHEF Is An Innovation Engine

“The BHEF is capable of doing what school budgets cannot do alone. The BHEF has been behind major initiatives of the District for decades, from 1:1 technology initiatives to library renovations and program development. EVERY child in Byram Hills benefits from the support of the BHEF–at every turn in their school years–and that is a big part of what distinguishes a Byram Hills education,” says Dr. Lamia.

Grant ideas can come from a variety of sources. Teachers are encouraged to submit grant proposals. “It is their classroom,” says Bond, “and if they want to try something innovative or have a need, that’s why we’re here and we try to get that message out to them.”

To generate ideas and foster community involvement, the BHEF has also organized roundtable discussions with the donor leadership members, the Benefactor and Bobcat levels, to brainstorm grant ideas. “We discuss what we hope our kids will have learned upon graduating here and how we want them to feel; things like independence, being an innovative thinker, and happy. Then we talk about what grants might achieve that and where parents currently see successes and opportunities in our schools,” explains Bond. The BHEF holds multiple community and donor events throughout the year and welcomes the community’s input.

Once a year, the BHEF participates in a forum with other school foundations, such as Bronxville, Chappaqua and Edgemont, where they also share and discuss grant initiatives. Throughout its process, the BHEF maintains an open dialogue with the administration. “We work hand in hand with Dr. Lamia and the principals throughout the year to understand where our schools and students need our support and to translate that into successful grants that our community will rally behind,” explains Bond.

Photos courtesy of the Byram Hills Education Foundation

Game-changers for the Students

Every year, the grants have been impressive game-changers for the students. This year introduced the ViewSonic technology, enabling virtual learning, and the Written Out Loud program, where kids learned the power of storytelling by writing and publishing their own books. Last year, the Creative Arts Community Center grant created an indoor and outdoor community space at Wampus connecting two contemporary art studios to an outdoor space that will support student learning.

In 2019, the Wellness for Life grant funded a partnership with the nationally recognized Stanford University’s Challenge Success program to assess and support student wellness. The Wellness Initiative in 2018 built an indoor educational playspace at Coman Hill to be used year-round and an outdoor obstacle course at Wampus, all to nurture students’ physical and mental wellness.

The Library 2.0 renovations in 2017 at Coman Hill, Wampus, and H.C. Crittenden integrated STEAM and Makers Spaces, updated presentation technology, modernized learning spaces, and connected the library and computer labs. The Full STEAM Ahead grant and STEAM Labs initiative in 2016 renovated technology labs and gave students at all academic levels exposure to coding, robotics, engineering, electronics, and 3D modeling. Much what Byram Hills families have come to take for granted in the classrooms now was initially funded by the BHEF, from the smart boards to the chromebooks to the cloud computer.

The BHEF also funds smaller but very impactful grants throughout the year. A few examples include new podcasting equipment, alternative classroom seating to support all types of learners, Kindle e-readers, specialized “pupil core eye tracking” glasses for research and athletic projects, a solar telescope, Byram Hills’ first greenhouse to study plants, and much more.

The global scholars program at the high school, which began as a pilot, started with the idea of providing students an alternative to the acclaimed science research program and creating a global competency in students to teach them how to be citizens of the world. The BHEF took a chance and funded a professional development trip to Nicaragua for teachers to learn how to bring this program to Byram Hills, which has since developed into a well-loved robust program.

One of the newest projects funded by the BHEF is the construction of Crittenden Commons, a multi-sport court for basketball, volleyball, street hockey and other sports with an amphitheater style seating area. The seating area will extend outdoor learning opportunities at the middle school. “The English teachers are already picturing doing Shakespeare outside,” says Bond.

How to Donate

Donations of any amount are welcome online at SupportByramHills.org. The Benefactor Circle for those who give $1500 or more and the Bobcat Circle for those who give $750 up to $1499 are leadership circles which include exciting benefits. Additionally, for anyone interested in honoring a teacher, a “teacher tribute” can be ordered online at SupportByramHills.org and the BHEF will send your teacher a special certificate notifying them of your gift in their honor. The BHEF sponsors many fun events throughout the year including an Outdoor Family Movie Night (10/2/21) and a Spring Bash (2022 date TBD). Corporate sponsorships are available with benefits and volunteer opportunities are available for anyone that wants to get involved.  Contact the BHEF at bhef1@byramhills.org.

Filed Under: Cover Stories Tagged With: Additional Funding, Armonk Schools, BHEF, Byram Hills, Byram Hills Education Foundation, Excellence, Jen Lamia, ViewSonic Virtual Technology

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