Congratulations to two Spry Middle School vocal groups who achieved top honors at the recent NYSSMA Major Organization Evaluation Festival.
Spry Middle School’s two vocal powerhouses, SoundWave 6 and SoundWave 7/8, both received a Gold Rating at the festival, held in Honeoye on Tuesday April 1. The rating is awarded to ensembles that demonstrate an outstanding level of technical and artistic skill in their performance, an incredible accomplishment that reflects the high standards and hard work of these singing Warriors.
SoundWave 6 is directed by Katie Goodman, who also co-directs SoundWave 7/8 with Stephen Costanza.
“These students go above and beyond, giving up their lunch study periods to participate in SoundWave, showing true dedication to their craft and their ensemble,” Goodman said. “We are so proud of their commitment, teamwork, and musical excellence.”
This is the first time in 15 years that Spry Middle School has been awarded Gold at this prestigious event. Congratulations to all these talented students,and their directors, for making Webster proud.
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The Spry Middle School Student Council is putting the fun into fundraising at its annual Charity Basketball Game on Thursday, March 20 from 6 to 8 p.m.
The evening will feature a friendly hoops competition between student houses, highlighted by a halftime show where Spry staff will challenge each other in Minute to Win It games. The staff and student competitions will all count towards points awarded to the houses, and after the game, the highly coveted Spirit Stick will be awarded to the house which has accumulated the most points during Spirit Week.
Suggested donation at the door is $5. Concessions will also be available for a nominal cost.
The game is the capstone event for Spry’s Spirit Week, and all of the proceeds from the game — and various other fundraising activities held during the week — will benefit Webster Hope. The agency provides residents in need in the 14580 zip code with food, clothing, household goods, furniture and occasional financial assistance.
Once again, the Spry Middle School Charity Basketball Game will be held Thursday, March 20 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the school gym, 119 South Avenue.
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A beloved fairy tale comes to life when Spry Middle School presents the delightful story Once Upon a MattressYouth Edition in three shows this weekend.
The one-hour musical comedy is a lighthearted retelling of the fairy tale The Princess and the Pea. But it offers some twists you might not expect.
The story unfolds with Queen Aggravain (Julia Alvaro) forbidding all marriages until her son, Prince Dauntless (Nolan Holland), finds a suitable bride. Despite numerous princesses vying for his hand, none can overcome the queen’s impossible tests. The arrival of Winnifred the Woebegone (Emily Barry), a “shy” swamp princess, shakes things up. Will she pass the queen’s “sensitivity test,” win the prince’s heart, and pave the way for Lady Larken (Emily Alvaro) and Sir Harry (Max Hoose/Hiro Tsuji) to wed? It’s a very funny take on the classic fairy tale.
The production is filled with lots of song and dance, and the Spry drama students — as always — do a tremendous job with their acting, singing and dancing. It’s a show the whole family will enjoy, and at just an hour, is perfect for even young children.
Here are some photos from the show:
Performances are scheduled for Friday, March 7 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, March 8 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are $9 each and are available online here.
On a side note, I’ve discovered an added benefit of attending these Spry shows. As I watched Webster Schroeder High School’s recent production of Hadestown, I was delighted to see, in lead roles, a few faces that I recognized from last year’s Spry production of SpongeBob: the Musical. We get to be on the ground floor as these young actors are just beginning their theatrical careers, and watch their development as their acting skills grow.
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The program is called the Listening Post, and it’s designed to foster student engagement through interactive and enjoyable activities like games and crafts. Last Thursday and Friday, WHEN brought the program to Spry and Willink middle schools, setting up tables in the cafeteria during the lunch blocks, filled with card games (UNO, Go Fish, Old Main and War) Valentine’s cards, stickers and markers. After finishing their lunch, students who were interested could come over and play a game or make a Valentine’s card for the residents of Maplewood Nursing Home.
WHEN used to hold these Listening Posts regularly before the pandemic, but this is the first time they’ve been offered since then. Linda Dioguardi, WHEN’s programming chair, remembered that the response back then was overwhelming. She was a little unsure how the students would react this time around and was hoping that there would be at least some interest.
Turns out she had nothing to worry about.
During the six lunch periods at Spry on Thursday, more than 125 students came over to the tables to play cards or make Valentines. The response at Willink the next day was equally enthusiastic.
WHEN volunteers and retired WCSD teachers joined the students at the tables to play some surprisingly competitive games of UNO or Old Maid, or to make some charming Valentine’s cards. And while they were participating in all the fun and games, the students didn’t even realize they were benefiting from positive interactions with adults who were truly interested in who they were and what they had to say.
The ultimate goal is to strengthen relationships and enhance the sense of community within — and outside — the school.
WHEN hopes to host a Listening Post at least once a month at each of the middle schools through the end of the year. This time only retired WCSD teachers and WHEN members were been invited, but as the program ramps up again, any retiree from the Webster community is invited — and encouraged — to participate. For more information, visit the Webster Health and Education Network website or email info@WHENdfcc.org.
The photo above is of some of the Valentine’s card makers at Willink. Here are a few others from the two Listening Posts:
Card games and card makers at Spry
Principal Callahan challenges some Spry students to a game of UNO
The WHEN/retiree Listening Post team at Willink
It was all smiles during the card games at Willink
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I have to admit right off the bat that I have never once actually watched an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. But after getting a sneak peak at Spry’s upcoming production of SpongeBob the Musical: Youth Edition, I feel like I know the characters inside and out.
There’s the irrepressibly optimistic SpongeBob and equally gloomy Squidward. There’s SpongeBob’s dimwitted BFF Patrick, the greedy Mr. Krabs, the sneaky Plankton and the enthusiastic scientist, Sandy Cheeks. They’re joined by many more of their aquatic friends, all residing in the undersea world of Bikini Bottom.
They, along with a ragtag group of almost four dozen more friends and community members (supported by another 20 behind-the scenes crew members), have to come together to save their home from a volcano which is threatening to erupt and destroy Bikini Bottom.
The enchanting production, which runs about 75 minutes including intermission, is an energetic, colorful, humorous, tune-filled romp from the beginning — when audience members are asked to silence their shellphones — right through to the triumphant ending when Bikini Botton is saved (oops. spoiler alert). It will delight everyone in the family, whether they’re familiar with SpongeBob or not.
The show features a talented group of young actors including Gary Patterson as SpongeBob, Tommy Bifarella as Patrick, Savannah Lane as Sandy, Rory Goodwin as Squidward, Tanner Peters as Mr. Krabs, Marne Mazzochetti as Pearl, Max Hoose as Plankton and Brynn Anderson as Karen. Watching them perform was like watching a Stars of Tomorrow program; I know we’ll be seeing many of these kids on the Schroeder stage in the coming years.
SpongeBob the Musical: Youth Edition takes the stage this weekend at Spry Middle School, 119 South Ave. Friday night’s show is sold out, but there are still a few tickets available for Saturday’s matinee at 2 p.m. and Saturday night at 7 p.m. Those shows will almost certainly sell out as well, so get your tickets now. They’re only $8 each and available at events.hometownticketing.com (use key word “Spry”).
Here’s a whole slideshow of photos; thank you so much to Marie Costanza from Image City Photography Gallery, for all of these great shots!
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Not long ago I heard a very interesting little bit of trivia about Spry Middle School: back in 1981, a low-budget horror movie was filmed there.
The movie is called Fear No Evil, and was produced by Frank LaLoggia. The story tells of an 18-year old high school student who appears to be human, but is actually the incarnation of Satan. Two archangels are sent from heaven to stop him before his evil takes over the world.
Several scenes were filmed in the school’s hallways, classrooms and gymnasium, in addition to exterior shots. The screenshots below are from the movie trailers.
The R-rated movie gets mixed reviews (not surprising for a low-budget thriller), like this one posted on IMDb:
It is definitely ambitious for a low budget feature and falls into the M.S.U. (Makin’ Stuff Up) genre perfectly. It is almost like director Frank LaLoggia had two half finished scripts and threw them together. … The high school scenes are really funny, like LaLoggia had no sense at all how people behaved in school.
Another review says the film has a “good premise” and is “well plotted,” but with “over-the-top acting, laughable special effects and a disappointing finale.” Both reviews agree, however, that it has a good soundtrack.
It must not be too awful, though; in 1982 it won a Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, for Best Low-Budget Film. This was the same year that Harrison Ford and Karen Allen won awards for best actor and actress, for Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Director Frank LaLoggia is a Webster native. Fear No Evil is the first of three movies he directed, the best-known of which is probably Lady in White (1988), inspired by the ghost story of the Lady in White at Durand Eastman Park. He’s also acted in several movies and sitcoms.
And here’s something else fun: click here to see when Spry was very briefly featured on Saturday Night Live.
An in-school food distribution effort at Spry and Willink middle schools is helping make sure that no student there goes hungry.
The food pantries were first established last year at Willink Middle School when math teacher Julie Russi and school counselor Mary Hurley realized there were a significant number of students at the school who were asking for food almost daily because they were hungry. After looking further into the issue, they also discovered that many of those students were experiencing financial and food insecurity at home. Even though they had access to extra food at school, that wasn’t helping them when they got home.
In the elementary schools, students facing these issues can take advantage of the district’s free-food backpack program, and the high schools have established food pantries. But there was no such program at the middle schools. Clearly there was a gap that needed filling.
To do that, Hurley and Russi established the Willink Food Pantry. It began small, just a single shelf in Hurley’s office, stocked with food from Immanuel Lutheran Church, which supports the elementary schools’ backpack program. Over the summer, they brainstormed ways to expand the program and involve the entire school community. They came up with a schedule where each of the building’s nine core teams would alternate months donating food and hygiene items for the pantry.
With their plan in place and the entire school’s help, Hurley and Russi have been able to keep the pantry stocked all year, supporting several students and their families, and a few staff members.
A peek inside the pantry at Spry Middle School
The decision to begin a food pantry at Spry Middle School was sparked much the same way as the Willink pantry. Staff members were discussing how one of their students was concerned they might soon be evicted from their home. That would mean the entire family could become food insecure. Literacy teacher Meghann Piwko recognized the need and, using Willink’s established pantry as a model, started to organize one at Spry as well.
Similar to the program at Willink, Piwko rotates the donation schedule among the different houses’ homerooms, asking students, parents and teachers to donate during a particular month. The donations are then sorted and placed in two cabinets for students to access. Students are welcome to visit the cabinets and take whatever they need, as long as an adult is present.
Both programs are running smoothly. But every once in a while something reminds you how important these kinds of programs are for our young people. Like when Piwko asked a student why they never took any of the pastas and sauce. Turned out that they had no way to cook pasta because they live in a hotel and only have access to a microwave.
Even though the school year is nearing the end, it’s not too late to help stock the Willink and Spry middle school food pantries. Even over the summer, food will continue to be available to students. Willink will continue to distribute food to families over the summer, and any items left over at Spry will be boxed up and sent home with kids and/or donated to Webster HOPE.
Our Webster secondary students got a dose of positivity Wednesday morning, when they arrived at school to discover sticky notes attached to their lockers. Each of the multi-colored notes carried a self-affirming message encouraging individuality, internal strength, perseverance, resilience and more.
It was all part of the “Locker Love” program, a Webster Central PTSA secondary engagement event, in partnership with the Webster Health and Education Network (WHEN).
Thanks to the efforts of dozens of volunteers who fanned out to each of the secondary buildings on Tuesday night, almost 7,000 inspirational notes were posted, one on every single locker at Schroeder High School (including GOAL), Thomas High School (and OWL), Willink Middle School (and OWL), and Spry Middle School. The volunteers also hung a number of motivational signs throughout the buildings.
The whole idea behind the project, said WHEN chairman Janine Sanger, was to inject a little positivity into the students’ lives, and “to remind kids that they’re the good in the world.”
Webster Schroeder Building Chair Stacie Peters noted that programs like these are a great way for students and their families to realize that PTSA is still relevant in the secondary buildings, even without the birthday parties and book fairs common at the elementary level.
“The secondary chairs love doing these special events for the students to make them feel special,” Stacie said. “(They) all love partnering together because what PTSA is in the middle and high schools is so different from elementary.”
Stacie and the other secondary PTSA chairs — Kim Kozlowski (Thomas/OWL), Kara Quigley and Amanda Clayton (Spry) amd Erin DeSarra and Allison Schoeffler (Willink/OWL) — organize several creative events like this every year, which are always enthusiastically supported by the secondary school administrators.
“We need to support students no matter how old they are,” Stacie said.
This is the third time the secondary school PTSAs have spread Locker Love. The first program was run in 2019, then again in 2020 before the pandemic hit.
At Willink Middle SchoolInspirational posters were also hung at each schoolAt Spry Middle SchoolKerry Lang, Elementary Special Ed. TOSA, and PSTA Chair Stacie Peters in the GOAL hallway at SchroederDustin Baily and his son Brian helping out at SchroederMore hard-working Schroeder volunteers
The curtain’s about to go up on the Spry Drama Club’s spring musical, Footloose!, which will fill the Spry Middle School Cafetorium with music and dance in three shows this coming Friday and Saturday.
You surely remember the 1984 Oscar-nominated movie musical starring Kevin Bacon. The story follows a city teenager who moves to a small town where rock music and dancing have been deemed illegal. The new kid and his rebellious spirit shake up the town as he tries to bring music back into their drab lives … and win the girl at the same time. There’s lots of great music (including that very infectious title song), plus some new songs developed for the stage musical.
As you can see from the photos I’ve included here, I had the chance to pop by one of the dress rehearsals the other day, and was very impressed by how hard these young actors, actresses and stage crew have been working to put together a great show. And the talent I saw in these middle school-aged performers kinda of blew me away. There are some incredibly beautiful voices in the ensemble which I’m certain we’ll be hearing again in future productions at Webster Schroeder High School and beyond.
I highly recommend you see this show. It’ll be a delightful and inexpensive night out.
Spry Drama Club will present Footloose! this coming Friday March 10 at 7 p.m. and Saturday March 11 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Reserve tickets are $8 each and can be purchased online here. Spry Middle School is located at 119 South Ave., in the Village of Webster.
You know that spring can’t be far behind when Webster’s middle schools announce their late-winter performances, which are always the first on the schedule every year.
Willink Middle School kicks everything off in just a few weeks when they present Disney’s Newsies, Jr. in three shows on Feb. 3 and 4.
Featuring a cast and crew of 100 sixth, seventh and eighth graders, the show is based on the real-life newsboy strike of 1899. It tells the story of Jack Kelly (Nicole Eggleton), a rebellious newsboy who dreams of a life as an artist away from the big city. After publishing giant, Joseph Pulitzer (Jeremiah Fischer), raises newspaper prices at the newsboys’ expense, Kelly and his fellow newsies take action. With help from reporter Katherine Plumber (Evie Aiezza), the newsies learn that they are stronger united and create a movement to fight for what’s right.
The show is packed with high-energy songs which have become well known to theater-goers and non theater-goers alike, including “Carrying the Banner,” “Seize the Day,” and “Santa Fe.”
Shows are Friday, Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, February 4 at 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at Willink Middle School, 900 Publishers Parkway, Webster. Tickets go on sale the week of January 30 on the Drama Club website. Cost is $10 for adults and $6 for students and seniors. Children 3 and younger are free.
Looking ahead to March, the Spry Middle School Drama Club is putting the final touches on their production of Footloose, scheduled for March 10 and 11.
Footloose tells the story of a young man who transfers to a high school in a small Midwestern town where rock music and dancing have been made illegal. As he struggles to fit in, he faces an uphill battle to change things.
The cast is led by 8th graders Rowan Murphy as Ren and Lilah Kastrinos as Ariel, supported by Rory Goodwin as Rev Shaw and Sarah Lowe as Vi. Ani Boller, Savannah Lane, Emily Berry, Grace Clayton, Abby Bielemeier and Evan Burdick round out the strong ensemble cast.
The performance features 80’s classics including “Footloose,” “Holding Out for a Hero,” “Almost Paradise” and “Let’s Hear it for the Boys.”
Footloose will take the Spry Cafetorium stage on Friday March 10 at 7 p.m., and Saturday March 11 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. More details to come about tickets.
I feature the people and places and events that make Webster the wonderful community it is — and throw in some totally-not-Webster-related personal ramblings every once in a while as well.
I love it when readers send me news about the great things happening in their schools or the community, so please email me anytime at missyblog@gmail.com
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