Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe, with the Sloatsburg Board of Trustees at his back, addresses a Village Hall audience honoring graduating Sloatsburg high school seniors.
Sloatsburg’s Village Hall was filled with smiles and friendly faces Tuesday evening as the community gathered to celebrate another graduating class of senior students.
Sloatsburg Mayor Carl Wright presided over the evening’s awards and ceremony, acknowledging the many local educational leaders in attendance, including Ramapo Central Superintendent Dr. Douglas Adams, Board of Education President Craig Long, new Sloatsburg Elementary School Principal Joseph Lloyd, and former longtime Sloatsburg Principal Ron Anagnostis.
Sloatsburg Mayor Carl Wright gives Sister Eileen O’Farrell a bouquet of flowers after she addressed the Village Hall gathering.
The village hosts the annual event which this year included special acknowledgement of recent Suffern High School Sports Hall of Fame Inductees Garry Bakker and Frank Persichetti, owner of Sunnyside’s Bar & Grill on Rt. 17. Sloatsburg had some 46 seniors this year, with approximately 14 in attendance for the evening’s ceremony.
Rockland County Legislator Doug Jobson spoke briefly, as did Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe, who will be Sloatsburg’s guest of honor for the May 26 Memorial Day Parade. Zugibe mentioned, as many village guest speakers have before him, the unique warmth and example that Sloatsburg’s village life represents to the wider community.
Craig Long also addressed the gathering in his capacity as President of the Ramapo School Board, though Long wears many community hats, including Rockland County, Town of Ramapo and Village of Suffern Historian, Suffern Library Board President and Curator of the Suffern Village Museum, and, of course, Suffern Police Detective and instructor at the Rockland County Police Academy. With deep roots in the community, Long’s affable manner and range of civic activities are examples to district students.
Sister Eileen O’Farrell who has served the St. Joan of Arc Parish in and around Sloatsburg for some 40 years touched on that very thing in her comments to open the evening — how a seemingly small community such as Sloatsburg produces a range of talented people. From small business leaders, to teachers and others, who often circle back, after being away, to put down roots once again in the community they grew up in.
O’Farrell marveled that student career choices are cycling back to include seemingly simple but important professions such as farmer, carpenter and chef.
The evening also included a number of musical interludes that included performances by Molly Ferguson and Hanna Consiglio.
