Community Day at Mifflin Elementary seeks to offer support to school, showcase programs

The Friends of Mifflin School hosted their Second Annual Community Day at the Thomas Mifflin Elementary School in East Falls on Saturday. Members of the school and community gathered for a day of games, prizes, food and entertainment.

 

Live performances by The Franklin Institute Traveling Science Show, Settlement Music School, Merge Dance Studio, Taffy the Clown, and Mr. Sterling’s Rap group were just some of the headlining events of the day dedicated to building support for the students and staff of Mifflin Elementary.

Raffles, game rooms, storytelling and tennis lessons from Legacy Youth Tennis and Education were also on the agenda as parents and children wandered the open halls.

Merging communities

George Matysik, co-chair of FOMS and Director of Government Relations and Public Policy at Philabundance welcomed guests as they entered the building. The committee was founded in 2012 to engage the East Falls community in a closer relationship with the school community.

For FOMS, hosting events such as Community Day has been pivotal in realizing their goals. “We feel it’s a great opportunity to open our doors to the entire community,” Matysik said.

In light of a recent incident, where a 4-year-old student was found with drugs and cash in his pockets, Marta Ciccimaro, a second grade teacher at the school, found the Community Day to be an especially unifying event.

“We’ve pulled together even stronger as a school,” she said. “I never would have expected something like that to happen at Mifflin. We are a big family here. Our administration goes above and beyond to provide the best for our students and we have wonderful families in the community,” she continued.

“It was an unfortunate incident but what’s most important is that we kept our students safe and that we’ve moved on… it’s important for us to have events like this where we can have fun and show what a great school we have at Mifflin.”

Saturdays at school

As live performances continued on stage in the auditorium at Mifflin Elementary, a distinguished guest was among the audience — Fourth District Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr.

“We’re so used to seeing our schools locked and sealed from the public,” Jones said. “Mifflin is putting itself in a unique and special situation by opening itself to the community, by showcasing its talented students, staff and parents and by providing affordable entertainment in a public way,” he continued.

“With shrinking budgets, events like this are exactly what our schools need. Not to mention how many young children are willing to sacrifice their Saturdays to come back to school? It’s an affirmation to the great communities we have at schools like Mifflin Elementary.”

According to Matysik, the festival raised well over $1,000.

“Rather than sit back and point fingers, the East Falls neighborhood has rallied to support our local public school,” he said