Students from Haddonfield Recognized For Their Achievements

CAMDEN COUNTY, NJ — Many students from the Haddonfield area were recognized for their talents in recent months.

The organizations that honored the students consisted of experts, advisers and similar professionals in the areas the students were recognized.

The Haddonfield School Board recognized Abigail Frey of Haddonfield Middle School on March 24 for her project Yarn Hope, which helps teach hospitalized children how to knit and crochet, she told the school board.

"It works largely ... at [helping with] anxiety management and depression level in children," she added explained.

At the time of her award, Frey said she had raised about $3,000, which was used to buy about 200 skeins of yarn for children to distract them from the reason they were in the hospital.

The Princeton Prize in Race Relations awarded a certificate of achievement on April 13 to Zion Lee, a student and current member of several organizations at Haddonfield Memorial High School and the co-founder and president of the school's Black Student Union.

Her efforts "have promoted respect towards the Black community, and since the creation of the [Black Student Union], the school, as a whole, has been more openly committed to diversity, equity and equality," the certificate's presenters said.

On May 4, a group of thespians at Haddonfield Memorial High School earned an honorable mention for their recent production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" in the 2022 Paper Mill Playhouse's Investors Foundation Rising Star Awards.

Sarah DeRossi, the production's choreographer; Bob Shindle, the production's scene designer; and Camilla Manskopft and Jack Novak, the production's lighting crew leaders, also received honorable mentions.

Other Haddonfield Memorial High School students who were involved in the production of "Cinderella" were announced as finalists for outstanding achievement awards presented by the Paper Mill Playhouse and Investors Foundation. Winners will be announced in June.

The finalists from Haddonfield were the following.

• Katie Walsh, for outstanding leading performer in a female-identified role.
• Erika Watts, for outstanding performance in a featured role.
• Sabrina Windt and Matthew DiDonato, for outstanding costuming achievement.
• Dawn Sheidt, for outstanding hair and makeup achievement.
• The production chorus, for outstanding production by a chorus.
• Matt DiDonato, for outstanding achievement by a teacher or outside director.
• Tyler Mills, for outstanding achievement in music direction.

On May 11, the National Merit Scholarship Corp. announced that Joseph D. Rupertus, a student at Paul VI High School in Haddonfield, was selected from more than 15,000 students to be one of 2,500 students to receive a $2,5oo scholarship.

Such recipients have "the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies," the corporation said.

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