NILES, IL – The school year 2017-2018 ended at the Aristotle Saturday Greek School of the Saint Haralampos community in Niles. The curtain for this successful and quite creative year fell with a rich Greek program and, of course, with the graduation ceremony.
The school’s event hall was packed with parents, grandparents, relatives, and friends of over 125 students who gave their best to entertain the audience.
Among those in attendance were Rev. Fr. Constantine P. Botsis, Protopresbyter of the Holy Taxiarhai and Saint Haralambos Greek Orthodox Church who celebrated his 35th anniversary as a priest in 2017, and Fr. George Lamberis, Presbyter of the community. Both Fr. Botsis and Fr. Lamberis are also the priests of the school and wished the students all the best and a good summer.
Andrianna Panayiotou, school director, thanked “all the collaborators who contributed to a successful program” and looked forward to seeing the children in September for the new school year.
The mothers of the PTA were also noted for their efforts. All the mothers are dynamic and active and helped to the maximum not only at the end of the school year, but also in all the activities throughout the year, including children’s parties and financial support for the School’s programs.
For the graduation ceremony, they arranged a meal for the teachers – after the program – to express their gratitude to the school staff.
The celebration of the 2017-2018 school year’s end had a distinct Greek character with many Greek songs and traditional dances. The Kindergarten students sang in fluent Greek Ksekina mia psaropoulo by Dimitris Gogos and without the slightest help from Ms. Panayiotou or the other teachers.
The pre-K sang Aspra, kokkino, kitrina, ble by Yannis Logothetis. The youngsters of the School needed Ms. Panayiotou to… push them a little while singing because they were looking at their parents and… they felt embarrassed, and forgot the song.
The 5th and 6th grade students performed traditional Greek dances, directed by teacher Alexandra Kastani and the celebration concluded with all the children of the School singing the songs Ena karavi by Alexandros Dimas and Ah Ellada by Manolis Rasoulis.
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