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Friday, January 31, 2025
Vol. 2, No. 5
THE GATEWAY TO NASSAU COUNTY SERVING FLORAL PARK, BELLEROSE AND STEWART MANOR
Third graders in top 10 in national vocab competiton
A Taste of Floral Park returns February 6th BY RIKKI MASSAND
Floral Park-Bellerose School third graders in the S.P.A.R.K. program placed sixth in the nation in the WordMasters Challenge. Photo courtesy of the Floral Park-Bellerose Union Free School District Floral Park-Bellerose School third graders in the district’s gifted and talented program, S.P.A.R.K., participated in and achieved Highest Honors in the 38th annual WordMasters Challenge. This national vocabulary competition involves approximately 125,000 students annually.
The 12 students, led by S.P.A.R.K. teacher Claudia Cerrone-Campoli, studied 25 words to prepare for the first meet. They learned the definitions, part of speech, synonyms and antonyms of these words. Following weeks of preparation, the students independently took a 20-question challenge in
The team at the nonprofit Floral Park Chamber of Commerce, led by its new Board of Directors’ President Shane Parouse and Vice President Christos Vassiliou, will present “A Taste of Floral Park” featuring the cuisine of four of the premier restaurants in the community, at the upcoming Chamber gathering on Thursday, February 6 from 6 to 8 p.m. at United Methodist Church (35 Verbena Avenue). The cost is $35 per attendee. Registration for this special networking night and ‘foodie fun’ is available online, at FloralParkChamber.org/events or by emailing info@floralparkchamber.org Vassiliou is the co-owner of Floral Park Diner at 142 Tulip Avenue. Chris and his business partners are celebrating their restaurant’s 10th anniversary, having begun operations in 2015. The Diner’s fresh fare
will be featured in this year’s culinary event, along with a handful of their neighbors on Tulip – Uptown Taco, Gyro Village and J. Fallon’s Tap Room. In a January 24th interview with The Villager, Mr. Vassiliou explained the concept he had to mix things up a little for the monthly gathering of the Chamber of Commerce. “We picked four restaurants and each of them will be providing a couple of trays of food, so attendees can get a taste of their cuisine. The concept celebrates their membership and participation with our Chamber and community and everyone gets a chance to see what they have – and the rotation of venues hosting us (such the UMC church next week, or a local bank) can accommodate the catering operations,” he shared. Generally the Floral Park ChamSee page 2
the form of analogies. Floral Park-Bellerose’s S.P.A.R.K. students scored an impressive 163 points out of a possible 200, placing sixth in the nation in the Blue Division. The next meet, which will introduce the students to 25 new words, will take place before February break.
The Floral Park Villager Published every Friday by Litmor Publishing Corp. Telephone 931-0012 Postmaster: Send Address Change to: The Floral Park Villager, 821 Franklin Ave., Suite 208 Garden City, N.Y. 11530 • Meg Norris, Publisher
Floral Park Chamber Vice President Christos Vassiliou, owner of Floral Park Diner on Tulip Avenue
Urban Explorers visit Cathedral PAGE 10 Upcoming events at the FP Library PAGE 9