Everyone is Irish on Saint Patrick's Day, so to put you in the mood, we offer images of Ireland and the Irish from around town. Please add your own!
All brides are beautiful, and so are their bouquets, cakes, rings, flower girls, and favors. Likewise, all grooms are handsome, as are their festive must-haves. In celebration of the royal wedding, enjoy our photos of local businesses' finest wedding wares. Cheers!
Robotics, fencing, Special Dance, Shakespeare, chess, and lots and lots of students filled the hall of Columbia High School on Wednesday for the annual CHS in Action night. Eighth graders and their parents were invited to preview activities, and the evening showcased performance groups, sports teams, the science fair, and clubs of every kind. Members of the public attended, along with parents of current students, and kids who came along simply to watch their CHS friends perform magic in the Black Box, talk up Italian culture in the hallways, or try out a hovercraft in the hallways. Students …
What’s past is prologue as Columbia High School student pursue tradition to prepare for a festival. A beloved beginning to the Columbia High School Shakespeare Festival week is the annual Shakespeare scavenger hunt. Teachers Steve MacPherson, Beth Johnson, and Suzanne Logeman organize the week’s events, which culminate Friday, April 15, from 7 a.m. until 3:15 p.m., when more than 200 Columbia High School students will participate in the festival. MacPherson and Logeman describe the scavenger hunt, which began Monday, “as a way to involve the whole school, from support staff to guidance to …
“I hope my novels celebrate the local,”Alexander McCall Smith said to a group of some 500 who attended the Friends of the Ridgewood Library’s 22nd Annual Author Luncheon. “And this is an appropriate audience for the local,” added McCall Smith, noting that the library is worthy community focus. He found only agreement in the audience, many of whom clutched copies of The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, the latest in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel series, and others of McCall Smith’s more than 60 books. Before the lunch and talk, McCall Smith signed books and posed for numerous …
Here comes Annie, arriving in musical form at South Orange Middle School this weekend. Dressed in their Annie t-shirts, the crew put the cast through their paces this week, checking sound and light cues and making sure everyone was letter perfect with their lines. According to Director Elizabeth Harris (also a math teacher at SOMS), “Annie was chosen so as many students as possible could be involved in the show and also to bring a bit of history alive.” When asked about the day to day realities of working with such a large cast Harris says, “It has its challenges, but also has exponential …
The frantic blur of the dance matched the kinetic beat of the music that filled Morrow Memorial Church to the rafters and beyond on Friday night, March 18th as the Watoto Children's Choir sang their hearts out to a standing room only crowd. The choir, one of several currently touring the U.S., is from of one the several Watoto Children's Villages in Uganda. Watoto, which means child in Swahili, is a place where orphans and women can find a safe haven in a country torn by war and AIDS. The villages take in the orphans, feed and clothe them as well as providing an education. The choir tours to …
Youngsters and their parents filled the Marshall School cafetorium Saturday afternoon for the school’s fifth annual Diversity Fair, which featured booths celebrating countries from around the world. In addition to promoting the acceptance of mixed-race families and children who are adopted, the fair include tables set up to represent countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East. Each table offered up delicacies from its homeland as well as artifacts, children’s books and historical information. The sharing of ideas, culture and information made for an enjoyable day of …
The Columbia High School All School Musical — The Drowsy Chaperone — captured the 2006 Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Book (book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar and music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison). Tonight, it will capture your hearts, if these photos are any indication. Conceived as a tribute to the Jazz Age musicals of the 1920s and '30s, the story is advanced by a narrator — “The Man in the Chair” — a fan of musical theatre, who talks about his favorite show. As he speaks the musical comes alive in his apartment and much madness ensues. The cast of 14 primary …
Marshall School hosts a Diversity Fair on Saturday, March 12, from 12 p.m. until 3 p.m., in the cafetorium. The event has become a fast favorite for local families; to preview this year's fair, we look back at images from last year. According to Robyn Brody-Kaplan, who has organized the fair for the past several years, this event has been an annual and beloved tradition at Marshall School for several years. Children and parents who attended last year were invited to take a "Citizen of the World" passport at the entrance, where Brody-Kaplan asked each family where in the world they're from. …
Our South Orange Middle School correspondent from the field, er, library, is Elissa Malespina. The school's librarian reported in on Read Across America, marked at SOMS on Monday with "Stop, Drop, and Read." "The entire school stopped what they were doing and read silently for 15 minutes at the beginning of the day," said Malespina. "It was a great success and some of the teachers commented that they would love to have it happen every week." Take a look -- then grab a book!
The “Night of 100 Dinners” saw about 1000 guests attending parties in Maplewood and South Orange, on or about March 5. The annual South Orange-Maplewood fundraiser benefits the Achieve Foundation. Volunteer hosts open their homes to invited guests who donate a suggested $50 each to Achieve. Simple enough, but many hosts make an occasion of the meal, hosting theme events, say co-chairs Buena Chilstrom, Kara Erhamza, and Eileen Neri. “We have 37 dinners planned,” Neri told Patch last month. The events range from intimate sit-down dinners to larger parties of 300. More than 600 invitations went…
Pitchers and catchers reported for spring training, making this a fine time to look back at long, late summer games under the lights. Let the countdown to that first pitch begin!
On a recent Saturday, the third and fourth grade boys basketball team from Our Lady of Sorrows School played the Prudential Center. Almost 200 members of the OLS Community, including the entire 25 members of the cheerleading squad, came out to cheer the boys on for an exhibition halftime game during the Seton Hall/University of Connecticut game. Despite the near sell-out crowd, the boys put on an impressive exhibition of their shooting, passing and defensive skills. Fans in the Prudential Center took notice, as one commented after the 61-59 Pirates loss: "We should have subbed in some of …
Before the icy rains came and the slow pattern of solar melting and nightly refreezing turned the snow into some weird form of lunar sediment, the mounds of fluffy white stuff made for great sculpting material — as evidenced by these photos. From astonishing polar bears and penguins to the humble work-a-day snowman, these pictures give a glimpse of what a grand gallery our town's front yards were offering up. We invite you to add your own snow sculpture photos here.
When he's not working as a senior photo editor in New York City or helping Patch with photo assignments here in New Jersey, Gianpaolo Fabiano volunteers his time at the Jersey Animal Coalitionshelter on Walton Avenue in South Orange. "I take photos for their site and often find myself hanging in the cat room," said Fabiano. "The shelter is always in need of cat-socializers, and maybe these photos will promote some adoptions!" How could they not? The Jersey Animal Coalition is a volunteer-run, no-kill shelter that has rescued and placed over 10,000 stray and abandoned pets since its founding …
