Happy Mother’s Day! I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our mothers a wonderful and blessed Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day was always a special day growing up and even more so today with my own family and wife. The job on being a mother never ends. In fact, I sit back in awe of my wife and the manner in which she takes care of our daughter. She is without a doubt the key to our little one’s growth, happiness, and success. Clearly, there should be multiple Mother’s Days before we even start speaking about Father’s Day.
In the Island Trees elementary schools, our teachers spend a considerable amount of time preparing the children with wonderful gifts for their mothers. We have so many creative teachers who each year develop new heart-warming Mother’s Day projects and very inspiring cards to celebrate this special day with our children.
The most memorable Mother’s Day gift I ever created was in Mrs. Thompson’s kindergarten class in Carmen Road Elementary School in Massapequa Park – the clay hand imprint. We created this project by pouring plaster of Paris into an aluminum pie tin and then by pressing our hand into the wet plaster. What a gooey mess! Later on, the imprints were titled, signed, dated, dried, painted, and wrapped up in tissue paper for our mothers.
Annually, my mom would take out the plaster handprint to measure my hand growth. I can recall at about 13 being able to palm the entire molded imprint and couldn’t believe my hand was once that small.
This was a wonderful gift that lasted many, many Mother’s days. Although I cannot exactly recall when the handprint disappeared, the memory of this school project will live with me forever and does the memory of my mother.
Happy Mother’s Day!
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From time to time, parents will ask me to share information with the community. Naturally, I try to accommodate their requests to the best of my ability. In this case, I believe the information is important for the entire community.
Recently, the Nassau County Bar Association hosted a seminar “Social Hosting, Legal Responsibilities of Party Hosts.” The workshop discussed the 2007 Social Host law where it a crime for a host, 18 or older, to provide alcohol to a minor. The criminal punishments range from $250 fine for first-time offenders to jail time for repeat offenders. I found through quick Google search that multiple Nassau County parents have been arrested and their crime highlighted subsequently in Newsday.
The law can impact even older siblings, if they throw a party with underage partygoers when their parents are out of town. This happens more often then we realize. Clearly, parents have the most to lose in a situation like this and as District Attorney Kathleen Rice stressed, “Don’t worry about being the popular parent…be the responsible one.”
In addition, another parent brought to my attention information related to the recent deaths involving high school basketball players from Michigan and Texas who both died suddenly from cardiac arrest. In fact, Newsday highlighted the issue in a March 8, 2011 article “Death raises concerns for student athletes on LI.”
One doctor in the article called for all student athletes to be screened through EKGs. He believes screenings will save lives. In an editorial the following day, the paper provided information from American College of Cardiology to say this institution does not support universal EKG screening. Seemingly there are two schools of thought on the topic. As schools, we require each child receive an annual physical in order to participate in our middle and high school athletics programs. During these physicals, parents should speak with the physician and seek their counsel and if you still have questions seek out a second opinion. You can never be too cautious when it comes to your child’s health and wellness.
I hope both of these topics are helpful for the community. Again, a parent wanted me to share these issues with the school community. If you have an idea you want me to share, please let me know cmurphy@islandtrees.org.
