Celebrating Hispanic heritage, by Nathan Weiser

Red Hook’s PS 676 held their first Hispanic Heritage Celebration on October 15 as part of National Hispanic Heritage month.
Adding to the Hispanic heritage theme of the event was the ethnic food that Kimpanadas, a new restaurant on Smith Street, donated. The owner is a friend of pastor Edwin Pacheco from Redemption Church.
A world map gate gave students the opportunity to put a sticker on the country where their family was from. Stickers were placed on Cuba, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia and others.
Lynn Shon teaches third, fourth and fifth grade. She organized a writing project about important Hispanic scientists. Her goal was to broaden student’s horizons.
“I used to teach at MS 88 and I would have the students do an experiment where they would draw a scientist and usually at least 80 percent of the students drew Albert Einstein,” Shon said. “They have internalized that what being a scientist is is generally being a white man.”
“I put together a packet and the students could choose among the scientists that I had curated,” Shon said. “I printed out a ton of information on these scientists and they could pick and choose from there.”
Two scientists that some adults might recognize were Eleanor Ochoa and Dr. Antonia Novello.
Ochoa was one of the first Hispanic NASA astronauts. She was the first Hispanic director and second female director of the Johnson Space Center. Dr. Novello was the first Hispanic to serve as Surgeon General.

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“Hopefully we will just leave these up for a couple of weeks so that people read and understand all the contributions that Hispanic Americans have made in the field of science,” Shon said.
Shon teaches science to third through fifth graders and also teaches STEM focused on maritime.
When she began teaching at 676 this year she thought they needed to make sure that Hispanic Heritage Month was recognized.
Reach Children’s Study House donated backpacks, notebooks and crayons for the kids. There was a free raffle for the kids of PS 676. Some of the donated prizes included a $50 Amazon gift card, children’s books, a world map puzzle, a brand new soccer ball, Mexican chocolate and toys. The kids were excited to get their prize from parent coordinator Marie Hueston when their number was called.