Steinway school gets support for its play

Thanks to the support of the Aviation Development Council (ADC), the Steinway School, I.S. 141, recently held its 2008 Shakespeare Festival, which included a student performance of “Hamlet.”
ADC acts as a bridge organization between the regional aviation industry and the communities it serves, and it recently presented the school with a $5,000 grant to benefit cultural activities in the school.
“Aviation Development Council, with the support of its member airlines, has formulated a community outreach program which is focused on youth education, cultural enrichment, youth leadership development, and youth wellness,” said ADC Director Bill Huisman, adding that they were looking for an initiative in the Astoria and Long Island City Area. “The Steinway School and their annual Shakespeare Festival became an ideal choice for our local outreach efforts.”
Huisman first became introduced to the school through PENCIL’s Principal for a Day Program and later expressed a desire to continue its partnership.
Acting Principal Miranda Pavlou said that they began talking about the Shakespeare Festival, which is part of the school’s participation in Stages of Learning. The program’s mission is “to improve the educational success of children, grades three through six, by using theatre making during the school day as a method of personalizing and embodying educational content across the curriculum.”
“After some discussion on how ADC could collaborate with Stages of Learning on this initiative, Aviation Development Council was able to offer us a $5,000 grant to help defray some of the costs of this cultural enrichment curriculum and performance,” Pavlou said. “We couldn’t have been more pleased than to have a community business help the school to offer this performing arts opportunity to our students.”
Following the student performance of “Hamlet” during Steinway School’s 2008 Shakespeare Festival on Thursday, May 15, there was a check presentation with ADC.