STANDING Brooklyn’s Biggest Booster
Dyker student wows at math bee
SUNSET PARK
Standing O is buzzing with excitement
for Danielle Pintor, winner
of the 2019 Diocesan Math
Bee, which took place at Our
Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic
Academy in Sunset Park on April
30.
The youngster, a fifth-grade student
at St. Bernadette’s
Catholic
Academy in
Dyker Heights,
clinched the trophy
in the 21st
round of the contest,
which featured
18 fourth-
and fifth-grade
math whizzes
from Catholic
schools throughout
Kings County
and the distant
borough of
Queens.
Zachary Mattis,
a student at
St. Rose of Lima Catholic Academy,
and Charles Long, a student
at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament
Catholic Academy — both in
the distant land of Queens — took
home the second and third place
awards, respectively.
— Julianne McShane
CANARSIE
Top defender
He’s on the ball!
Three cheers to Canarsie footballer
Adisa Isaac, who was named
as the best high school football
player of the 2018 season on May 1 in
Manhattan.
The New York City chapter of the
National Football Foundation, a
group that honors the country’s top
high school football players, named
Isaac as the best high school footballer
at its “Elite Eleven” dinner
at the New York Athletic Club at
the southern end of the Distant Isle’s
Central Park.
Isaac, a defensive end for Canarsie
High School, received the “Mr.
Football” award.
He was a force for coach Brian
Ellis for tallying a total of 88 tackles
during the 2018 season and finishing
his early career with 198 total tackles.
He was previously ranked the
number one college prospect in the
state and the fourth best defensive
end in the country.
Last fall, he received a full athletic
scholarship to play football at
Penn State and enrolled in early
January of this year.
Football player Jason Blisset
Jr. (inset, right) of Bay Ridge’s Poly
Prep Country Day School was also
selected as one of the “Elite Eleven”
and celebrated at the Manhattan
dinner. — Kevin Duggan
COURIER L 38 IFE, MAY 17–23, 2019 PS
BAY RIDGE
Stars of the stage
A round of applause for the students
of the St. Anselm Catholic
Academy Drama Club, who wowed
with their performances in “Showcase
2019,” a production of highlights
from the popular children’s
musicals “Annie Jr.” and “Willy
Wonka Jr.”
The stars were shining brightly
inside the St. Anselm Catholic
Academy gym on the evening of
April 5.
The energetic young performers
from grades four through eight
entertained the audience members
with one lively fast-paced song after
another. Numbers included:
“Hard Knock Life,” “Tomorrow,”
BEDFORD-STUYVESANT
Three cheers for the bighearted
boys and girls at a Bedford
Stuyvesant charter school
who spent the afternoon fighting
world hunger on May 3 by packaging
snacks and planting crops to
feed hungry New Yorkers.
The 250 middle-school kids
worked with teachers and faculty
at Launch Expeditionary
Learning Charter School to
organize the humanitarian mission,
before breaking up into
three groups and tackling different
strategies to fill up empty bellies
across the city.
“They were super excited
about it,” said Helen Frank, a
spokeswoman for NYC Outward
Bound Schools, which operates
the school.
One group headed over to the
greenhouse at the Saratoga Urban
Agro-Ecological Center on
Fulton Street, where they planted
some seeds that will ripen into
tasty vegetables later this summer.
A second group visited another
greenhouse at the Far Rock Urban
Agro-Ecological Center
in Queens, while a third group
bagged snacks at the Fulton
Street offices belonging to The
Campaign Against Hunger, a
non-for-profit organization that
helped organize the event.
— Colin Mixson
SHEEPSHEAD BAY
Picture perfect
Hip, hip, hooray for Kings
Bay Youth Organization,
which kicked off its 63rd annual
youth baseball league
this year, commemorated with
a painted mural.
The organization, founded
in 1956, is a non-profit dedicated
to providing local youth
with opportunities to compete
in organized sports, said the
president of Kings Bay Baseball.
“We teach the kids teamwork,
and allow for them to
play and have a good time,”
said Anthony Georgopoulos.
Organizers of the league
recently debuted a mural featuring
legendary ballplayer
Jackie Robinson, which they
commissioned outside one
baseball diamond near Coyle
Street and Shore Parkway.
“It was a huge wall full of
graffiti, and so we had an artist
named Linda Sorrone
come and paint this mural,”
said Georgopoulos. “I think it
turned out really nice.”
Georgopoulos called the mural
the latest in a series of efforts
to give back to the neighborhood.
“We like to be a part of the
community, so for example, we
always let other schools use
our fields,” he said. “Five local
schools use the fields for field
days, and other things, which
we let them do for free.”
Standing O saulutes Kings
Bay Youth Organization for its
work on behalf of the community.
— Aidan Graham
“Never Fully Dressed Without a
Smile,” “Pure Imagination,” “The
Candyman,” and “Think Positive.”
The musical, which was directed
by teachers Diane Bruno, Angelica
Capotorto, and Oneida Mitchell,
with help from production specialist
Jeanette Samara, is the culminating
event of the school’s highly popular
Drama Club, and showcases the
talents of all the members.
Standing O tips its hat to the
young thespians.
GREEN THUMBS: Sixth-graders from Launch Expeditionary Learning Charter School
celebrate after planting vegetables inside the Saratoga Urban Agro-Ecological Center
in Bedford-Stuyvesant on May 3. Photo by Caroline Ourso
Kids do their part to battle hunger
Photo by Trey Pentecost