16 MARCH 30, 2017 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM KIDS & EDUCATION Glendale school to host freestyle concert featuring legends TKA & Lisette Melendez BY ANTHONY GIUDICE [email protected] @A_GIUDICEREPORT It’s going to be a true flashback Friday next month for parents of one Glendale school. On Friday, April 7, St. Pancras School is hosting a freestyle electronic dance concert featuring the legendary freestyle group TKA and Lisette Melendez. The event will be hosted by Speedy, with popular DJ Glenn Friscia. “This is the fi rst time the school is hosting a freestyle concert,” said Franca Lanci-Briganti, president of fundraising for St. Pancras. “Some of our parents went to a similar event last year, and they had a great time. So we wanted to bring that experience to Glendale.” The concert will be held inside the St. Pancras School auditorium, located at 68-20 Myrtle Ave., which can hold up to 500 people, Lanci-Briganti said. Tickets for the freestyle event are $55, and each ticket purchase comes with three drinks. Lanci-Briganti confi rmed there will be a bar serving soda, water, beer and wine. No liquor will be sold during the event. Since there will be a bar, no one under 21 will be admitted. “It’ll be a fl ashback for us. It’s a night out for all the parents, especially since we all have children. I’m excited for the whole thing,” Lanci-Briganti said. “I’m hoping that everyone will have a good time. I’m looking forward to it myself. It’s a lot of fun knowing we get to listen to artists that we listened to years ago.” Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the concert will kick off at 8 p.m. For tickets, call St. Pancras School at 718-821-6721. The school will direct callers to Gina Lehman, who will handle all ticket sales. Photo courtesy of St. Pancras School St. Pancras School in Glendale will be hosting a freestyle concert next month. Ridgewood students are learning to code robots in their brand-new Lego Robotics Club BY ANTHONY GIUDICE [email protected] @A_GIUDICEREPORT Youngsters at one Ridgewood elementary school are getting a chance to build the future thanks to a donation of Lego robotic kits from the Masters of Impossibilities foundation. JW Perry, founder of Masters of Impossibilities, donated eight Lego robotics kits to P.S. 88 so the school could create their very fi rst Lego Robotics Club where 40 students spend one hour aft er school on Wednesdays and Thursday learning how to build and program their toy machines. “It’s teaching children to live their dreams,” Perry said of funding the school’s robotic club. “As parents and as people we are forgetting to teach children to live their dreams. I felt it was my duty to show the children that you can make it. I got tired of seeing our children thrown away.” The robotics program teaches kids how to build and disassemble a robot using the iconic Lego pieces, code the robot to complete a set of tasks, and enhances their abilities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). “It’s STEM all the way,” said Robert Woods, a former teacher who is now the education consultant for Lego. “It’s something the kids really need. They need to learn to work together as a group and problem solve. You’re bringing in the math skills, you’re bringing in the science skills, you’re bringing in the technology skills, and that’s what kids need today.” As an added bonus for students, Perry said that the students in the P.S. 88 Lego Robotics Club will take part in a competition, where he will send the winning pupil and their family to Cape Canaveral in Florida to attend three days of space camp. Perry wants to use his own personal experiences of being homeless to rising up to found a 501-c not-forprofi t organization with an offi ce on Wall Street to inspire children and show them that they, too, can be masters of the impossible, and reach their dreams if they work hard and have a great support system. JW Perry (second from right) and administrators at P.S. 88 in Ridgewood cut the ribbon on the school’s Lego Robotic Club. “It was just too good for me to just have a large amount of capital and keep it for myself when I see so many young people struggling. That’s why I gave back to the school here. This is home. This is the ground-base.” Photo by Anthony Giudice/QNS P.S. 88 is not the only school that will benefi t from Masters of Impossibilities’ generosity. Perry will be funding Lego Robotics programs in P.S. 68, P.S. 71, P.S. 305 and several other schools across the fi ve boroughs.
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