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UNIONDALE _____________
HERALD BEACON
march to end violence
Walking for Alzheimer’s
museum fundraiser
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Page 10 $1.00 FREE
ocToBER 10 - 16, 2024
High school mentorships set to return and members of the Hofstra University staff. From April to June, their role was to commuWith the school year well nicate with the mentees, as underway, Rhonda Taylor, well as their teachers and administrators, if needed, to assistant superintendent of the Uniondale school district, keep them on top of their and Pablo Ocampo, assistant school responsibilities. Some mentors principal at the high tutored their menschool, are preparing for the next tees, some offered cohort of mentees in them support durthe My Brother’s ing times of stress, Keeper Mentor Proand some even gave gram. them daily wake-up The program is a calls, Taylor said, to way for struggling make sure they seniors at Uniondale made it to school. H i g h t o h ave a n “(Mentees) need extra support syssomebody who can tem in place to push just encourage them to graduation. them to hang in “We clearly startthere,” Taylor said. ed out wanting to “ W h i c h e ve r w ay look for seniors who they could get were struggling to together with them, get to the finish line they were able to do for graduation, and that.” thinking about who Ocampo said that could mentor those PABLo ocAmPo all 13 mentees grads ch o l a r s, ” Tay l o r Assistant principal, uated — 11 in June Uniondale High explained. and the other two in T h e p r o g r a m School August. And all of be g an last school them were accepted year, and didn’t get off the by at least one college, accordground until April, when the ing to Taylor. 13 mentees from the high A l t h o u g h M y B ro t h e r ’s school gathered with nine vol- Keeper was created for young unteer mentors at a breakfast men of color, the mentor prot o m e e t o n e a n o t h e r a n d gram also accepts struggling exchange phone numbers. young women who believe they The mentors in the program would benefit from having a were “folks who just live in the mentor. Six of the mentees last c o m m u n i t y, ” Tay l o r s a i d , year were young women. including firefighters, emerThe mentees were chosen gency medical technicians, based on a three-tier system heads of civic organizations
By KELSIE RADZISKI
kradziski@liherald.com
N
Alice Moreno/Herald
Corie Mason, 15, left, and 14-year-olds Jessie Mason, Katherine Garcia and Dallis Cooke, of the Uniondale Library’s Junior Friends, helped put together one of the library’s Hispanic Heritage celebrations last Saturday.
Uniondale Library celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month By KELSIE RADZISKI kradziski@liherald.com
The Uniondale Library held a series of Hispanic Heritage Month programs last Saturday, to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and to bring the community together. “It’s important to represent the people of our community and celebrate them,” Amanda Borgia, the library’s head of teen services, said. David Podles, a renowned violinist from Latvia, performed in the afternoon, drawing a large crowd of kids and adults. He played 15 songs in total, from folk medleys to ballads, all from different countries, and shared information about each piece’s country of origin, its composer and the style of music. Argentina, Podles explained, is known for
the tango, a well-known rhythmic music style that has variations among composers but has a common time signature and repeated musical patterns. He played “Adiós Muchachos,” by famed Argentine composer Julio César Sanders, to demonstrate the typical style. The Dominican Republic is known for its fast-paced merengue music, Podles told the crowd. Merengue is traditionally played with a unique rhythmic pattern called quintillo, five notes played across four beats. Podles played the first recorded merengue from 1906, composed by Luis Alberti. Salsa music is popular in Venezuela, Podles said. Salsa is a combination of many Latin, African and Caribbean music styles, and Podles played the popular Venezuelan ContinUeD on paGe 2
ow that we’ve already started it last year and we have mentors that are able and willing, we’re ready to start a lot earlier this year.
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