DCS Hosts Safe Alternative to "Trick or Treating"

Hundreds of princesses, pirates, sports cars, and minivans all made their way to the Dade Christian School campus, on Monday, October 31 for a fantastic night of games and “trunk or treating”. Before heading outside to the parking lot, guests entered into the newly renovated Crusader Cafeteria and had the opportunity to purchase a delicious spaghetti dinner sponsored by the Senior Class of 2013.
This was the second time the school hosted this event and the attendance easily doubled in number compared to last year. “We all had such a terrific time last year, so we were definitely not going to miss it. We even brought a lot of our family members and friends this year,” said Dade Christian School parent, Stephanie Andrade.

Laughter filled the night as families wandered from trunk to trunk in the school parking lot, collecting candy while socializing with other school families, church families and a host of visitors from the local community. Trunks were decorated according to every theme in the spectrum, from Mother Goose to 101 Dalmatians, and even a pirate ship made an appearance. At the end of the night, the prize for best trunk, which was a brand new iPad, was awarded to the Lupica-Tondo family for the Madagascar Circus they recreated in their trunk. “The Madagascar trunk was awesome because they had balloon animals, a popcorn machine, and it was so colorful!” said Dade Christian School student, Cristyn Myland.
More pictures on DCS Facebook
“I greatly enjoy how the community feels safe and comfortable at this event on a night that many people correlate with danger,” said event coordinator, Ali Rodriguez. “Everyone was dressed up in kid-friendly costumes and they had a terrific time.” This was a wonderful opportunity for the entire community to come together and enjoy a secure and stress free atmosphere.

Best School Cafe in South Florida

Grettel Pantaleon, Kaleb Fowler, Karyna Gastesi, Amanda Diaz, and Alyssa Hessing (L-R) enjoy the high top tables and the flat screen televisions in the new Crusader Cafeteria.

Dade Christian revealed its newly renovated cafeteria to the student body and staff on Monday, October 29. Working on making improvements to the school, they started with the student and faculty’s main gathering place, the cafeteria. “It’s like no school cafeteria I have ever seen,” said Dade Christian School parent, Chely Rodriguez. From the smooth polished concrete floors to the new flat screen televisions, Dade Christian School has made many upgrades that have made quite an impression on everyone who enters the “Crusader Café.”
“The Crusader Café is demonstrating to everyone that Dade Christian School is always looking for ways to improve its facility in order for the students and faculty to benefit from the renovations,” said Junior, Nikol Rodriguez. “The style of the cafeteria is so modern and unique; it reminds me of Chipotle, my favorite restaurant.” The new contemporary design was made to resemble a modern restaurant.
In the morning, the new flat screens televise educational cartoons for the younger elementary students while informing parents and students of upcoming events. During secondary lunch, picture slideshows of the students are displayed, as well as videos of the latest sporting events featuring Crusader athletes, such as the most recent football game.
Its purpose was to embody an environment of comfort and promote studies after school. The café is a place where students could go to in order to do their homework without any interruptions while being very comfortable after school. “It is great to see the students on their iPads completing assignments while sitting comfortably in the new seating area,” said geography teacher, Richard Yi.
Its new sleek design complements our school in more ways than one. Our students look forward to coming to lunch each and every day, the seniors especially are ecstatic about their new seating area during high school lunch that includes high top tables and booths. “We were so happy when we saw our new seating area,” said Senior, Justin Martinez. “It’s awesome that the underclassmen get to enjoy it as well before and after school.” Overall, the café is a homerun.

DCS Students Conduct Hurricane Exercise at Miami-Dade County Department of Emergency Operations

As Hurrivac computer images of Category 3 Hurricane Cathy got closer to South Florida’s coast, Mayor Joel Gracia barked orders at his fellow Dade Christian School students over the telephone. A fire in an evacuation shelters needed to be extinguished and 1,000 people relocated to other shelters in the area. Like now!
Gracia and Emergency Management Director Aliyah Drummond were shouldering the responsibility to supervise Emergency Support Functions (ESFs in emergency management parlance) managed by their classmates – Fire-Fighting, Transportation, Law Enforcement, Urban Search and Rescue, Health and Medical, Food and Water and Mass Care, to name a few – to ensure that the dispossessed people were properly relocated to other shelters and safe from the approaching storm.

“Put the fire out first,” ordered Gracia to Fire-Fighter Team Leader, Brandon Pedrosa. “Then start removing the people,” he directed Transportation Team Leader Dylan Gardner.

As soon as the fire in the evacuation center was resolved, a gasoline truck overturned on a major evacuation route, leaving thousands of motorists stranded and their pets escaping into the adjacent forests. Gas from the truck was spilling all over the road and motorists were overheated and thirsty with tempers flaring. Again, Mayor Gracia had to depend on his ESFs to resolve this perilous situation. “We need to remove the truck, contain the spill and get bottled water out to these people as soon as possible,” he demanded. “Get Hazardous Materials Team Leader Simon Kato, Animal Protection Team leader Emily Gonzalez and Mass Care Team Leader Darian Betancourt on the phone. We need to move fast.”
As Hurricane Cathy gained momentum and continued its perilous trek towards Miami, student meteorologists Emily Gutierrez, Nyah Correa, Rebekah Blanco, Christina Hechavarria  and Donny Pacheco were providing briefings to the student media representing TV and radio stations.

After Cathy’s passage, the situation got even worse. The students faced equally challenging emergencies such as several hundred senior citizens stranded on an island as a result of a tanker crashing into the bridge connecting the island to homeland. ''We've sent boats, helicopters and anything we can,'' said Emergency Management Director Aliyah Drummond.

In the meantime, a hospital was overcrowded with storm victims, medical resources are virtually exhausted and basic water and food provisions was also used up. The hospital was on auxiliary power, making it difficult to perform basic surgical procedures. ESF Health and medical Services led by Team Leader Stephanie Morales took charge, bringing in additional medical staff, surgeons and portable shelters for care for the injured.

Also, parts of their city were virtually underwater from rain and storm surge, with people and their pets perilously stranded on roof tops and dangling from trees. Here Urban Search and Rescue led by Team Leader Bradon Edgecomb were sent out to locate the stranded and transport them to safety.

Seventy DCS students spent Tuesday morning on October 16th at the Miami-Dade County Office of Emergency Management participating in a special hurricane preparedness exercise called StormZone, a Miami-based non-profit program where they planned for and recovered from category 3 Hurricane Cathy.

StormZone, sponsored by Florida International University, the American Red Cross and CBS-4’s Neighbors 4 Neighbors, is a free online hurricane science education and preparedness program offered to public and public and private schools. The program specifically helps students understand the importance of advance preparation when confronted with a natural disaster such as a hurricane. For five years, StormZone has been taught in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County schools throughout hurricane season which ends November 30th.

At the conclusion of the exercise, student Mayor Gracia conducted a press conference to inform student reporters on preparedness measures that were taken before the storm hit and recovery efforts after its passage. The first question asked was, “were any lives lost?” “No” said a relieved Gracia.

“Through this interactive exercise, students learn about emergency management, make the decisions necessary to respond to a disaster in their community and develop a recovery plan,” said Bay Proby, StormZone director.  “This classroom experience also lets students learn about the importance of individual responsibility, organizational collaboration and project management skills when confronted with a hurricane.”

Homecoming 2012

Always highly anticipated by the Crusader Nation is Dade Christian School’s Homecoming week held this year from November 1 – 5 at the north Miami-Dade campus located at 6601 N.W. 167 Street. Homecoming Week, which drew 1,800 people, culminated on Friday night at the Dade Christian – Barrington Academy football game that was won by the Crusaders, 47-6 – a fitting conclusion to a wonderful week of friendship and excitement.  DCS welcomed home all of the alumni at this game at their special Alumni Tent that included free crepes and beverages for everyone attending.

“Homecoming Week is always a great way for all of the alumni to reunite with fellow classmates and reminisce about the awesome times we had at Dade Christian School,” said Jennifer Martinez, DCS Class of 2003. “It’s an exciting week not only for alumni but current students, faculty and friends.”

This year’s Homecoming Week theme was “Crusaders Around the World” in which each school grade represented a continent of the world. They dressed up each day according to their designated continent and their lip syncs and booths were designed accordingly as well. Students and teachers also competed in field events such as tug-o-war and dizzy bat relay throughout the week. Each school grade also served cuisine that coresponded with their assigned continent, for example  Teriyaki sliders was served at the Asian booth and snow cones at the Antarctica booth. There were also rides for kids during Homecoming Week from bounce houses to carnival games.

More photos at Dade Christian Facebook!

“I really believe our Homecoming Week celebrations outdo any other school and when it comes to a little competition between grades,” said school senior Justin Martinez. “Even though the students get competitive, when the week is over everyone is even closer in terms of friendship and the Crusader spirit is multiplied.”

Added Craig Konchak, Dade Christian’s Director of Development: “Every year Homecoming Week is a significant success, and the 2012 version was no exception. It was planned perfectly, down to every detail. The students, faculty and sponsors did an amazing job when it came to coordinating every event. Dade Christian's Homecoming is truly one of a kind!”