On the evening of Feb. 5, Wisdom Lane Middle School celebrated the National Girls and Women in Sports Day by hosting a mother/daughter night. This is the sixth year that the school has participated in the celebration, which was started by the Women's Sport Foundation in 1986. Each year this event at Wisdom Lane has grown in popularity. On Tuesday night, over 160 mothers and daughters participated in an evening of fun activities and cooperative games. Thirty-five members of the faculty and staff volunteered to help and be part of the evening and the PTA set up the refreshments, bringing the total number of participants to over 200.

The evening began with an introduction by Mrs. Rosemary Daly, a 33-year veteran Physical Education teacher. She explained the purpose of the evening, which was to bring attention to the strides that women have made over the past 30 years and the importance of mothers and daughters staying "connected", especially during the teen years. She also emphasized the studies that have been done that found that girls who get involved in sports and after school activities are less likely to get involved with drugs and alcohol, less likely to get into trouble and more likely to graduate from high school. Physical activity and exercise can help reduce the risk of breast cancer, fight fat, help a person to sleep better, increase self-esteem and learn how to manage time and deal with not only success but failure also.

This year's theme "Celebrating 30 years of Title IX"(the federal law that provides women with equal opportunities in sports and the workplace) is sponsored by the Women's Sports Foundation. The Women's Sports Foundation is a nonprofit organization and is located in Eisenhower Park. The foundation provided posters, Lady Footlocker clothing, a signed poster from the NY Liberties Basketball Team, books, pencils, stickers and other items for the raffle. Each girl received a 'goodie bag" filled with toiletries, a bandana and information about the foundation. Party Giant of Levittown donated the plastic bags. The NY Islanders donated T-shirts and hockey pucks. Mrs. Colleen Carew of the Wisdom Lane PTA organized healthy snacks consisting of fruit, vegetable platters and water donated by Stop and Shop (East Meadow and Old Country Road), Fred's Deli, Gardiners Ave Deli, Division Ave Deli, Division Ave Drive Thru Deli Mart, and Old Country Buffet.

Following the introduction, the mothers and daughter's participated in New Games activities including "Group Juggle, "Hoop Pass", "Moonball" and "Can It." The games provided the opportunity for the mothers and daughters to compete and work together cooperatively to achieve the goals that were set up. This was followed by country line dancing.

The highlight of the evening came during the break when the guest speaker, Elaine Roque, assistant head volleyball coach from Hofstra University spoke. She was inspirational when she shared her personal life's experiences. Roque spoke to the mothers and daughters about the importance of staying in a good relationship with each other. She shared the lessons in life that she learned and how her mother was always her strong supporter and there for her, during her high achievements and her disappointments. Roque is not only a successful volleyball coach but also has been a three-time collegiate All-American, a 1996 US Olympic Team alternate and a standout player on the professional beach volleyball circuit. She has coached the men and women's volleyball teams in California and Utah. She also served as the volleyball coach for the beach volleyball teams for the summer 2000 Olympic trials in Sydney, Australia. She is in the process of publishing a book on volleyball. Mrs. Daly felt very fortunate to have Roque as a guest speaker.

The following teachers and staff members volunteered to help during the evening: Heather Annarella, Kathy Feeney, Nina Glenn, Kellie Mullee, Shannon Glenn, Pat Cottichio, Maureen O'Gara, Nancy Smith, Mary Agrapides, Andrew Atkins, Eileen Gill, Dr. Margaret Ippolito, Steve Florio, Denise Kirchmer, Valerie Spicer, Mauro Chiti, Vanessa Galenskas, Maria Gallina, Jennifer Renneisen, Karen Venini, Joe Campo, Ellen Gerlach, Tami Green, Marite Hennesey, Dawn Carella, Claudia Farishian, Carol Going, Carla Herbert, Mike Pace, Teresa Suppa, Erin Coleman, Bob Elliot, Chris Paprocky, Regina Muench,Danielle Polatschek, Christina Rambold, Tim Chambers and Greg MacArthur.