Special Talented Artistic Remarkable Students and the Panther Partners Club offer an original production of ‘We Love New York.’
By: Gwen Runkle
PLAINSBORO Forget your field guide and leave your telescope behind you won’t need either to catch a glimpse of the STARS at Community Middle School tonight.
The STARS, or Special Talented Artistic Remarkable Students, will be shining brightly on stage along with the Panther Partners Club in an original production of "We Love New York," a musical written and directed by two teachers.
"The events of Sept. 11 have deeply affected us all and the STARS have been very motivated to make a difference," said Eileen Cevera, a STARS teacher who co-wrote the production with fellow teacher Samantha Tognela.
Admission to the 6 p.m. performance will be free, but the STARS will be accepting donations for the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation.
STARS is an educational program for students with developmental disabilities in grades six through eight in the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District in which students take functional academics, adapted life skills, special area classes and pre-vocational sampling.
Some of the students also are mainstreamed for social studies and science, Ms. Cevera said.
The Panther Partners Club is an afternoon club supervised by Ms. Cevera and Nancy Meck, another STARS teacher, where STARS students and mainstream students participate in joint activities, such as preparing crafts and baked goods for periodic fund-raising sales.
So far this year, the STARS class already has made several donations to charitable organizations, including one for the Friends of West Windsor Open Space in support of the Sept. 11 Memorial in the Ron Rogers Arboretum.
Ms. Cevera came up with the idea for the "We Love New York" musical over the district’s Christmas break.
"It’s about a group of students who go to school and their bus is transformed into a magical subway," Ms. Cevera said. "The students travel around New York City to different places."
For the past three months, the 16 STARS students and their mainstreamed counterparts have been learning the songs and dances for the production and also created all the scenery.
"Twenty-five students will be participating in all and they’ve all been great," Ms. Cevera added. "It is very important for the kids to be involved in activities like this, because it raises their confidence and develops a lot of their skills."
A dessert reception is expected to follow the play, under the supervision of Ellen Jinks, life skills instructor. Dave Serughetti, the STARS art teacher, will have student art work on display.