Elmwood Franklin School will proudly welcome alumna Liz Lewin ’01 as the graduation speaker at the Class of 2017 commencement ceremony this June.

Liz re-joined the WKBW Channel 7 Eyewitness News team in June 2016 as a multimedia journalist/reporter. She had previously freelanced at the station before taking a job in Boston. Liz has a background in public speaking and in the past worked as a communication specialist in the City of Buffalo with the Mayor's Office of Communications.

A graduate of Elmwood Franklin School and Buffalo Seminary, Liz earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Media Studies from Fordham University in New York City. Liz attended Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications where she studied broadcast journalism and is currently enrolled in the Multidisciplinary Studies program at Buffalo State College.

This morning, we celebrated our volunteers and all of their hard work and dedication. During the breakfast, we also recognized our Unsung Heroes. The Unsung Hero Award pays special honor to those who work tirelessly for our school without fanfare, fulfilling important roles but not always getting the recognition they deserve. This year we honored two such individuals.

Maggie Schultz has volunteered in the library at least once or twice a week, processing books and assisting students. Maggie is a warm-hearted and endearing volunteer and grandmother, who has worked often without recognition. Joan Good affectionately refers to her as “the library ninja.” She comes in and works quietly in the background, often unseen. Sometimes the only way we know that she has been in is by the HUGE stack of stamped and processed books on the carts ready to be shelved. Maggie’s devotion to the library and the students is inspiring, and we are so very thankful for her hard work and dedication.

Party on New Amsterdam, Auction 2017, was true to title in that it was a PARTY! Auction chairs Chad and Kimisha set the vision, but Stephanie Kroth made it a reality. She is energetic and passionate—a creative individual who is a true team player. Stephanie spent countless hours with her committee in her basement, gluing and drilling cardboard and wood and hula hoops and tinsel! She would share pictures throughout the year, but it wasn’t until she was 20 feet up on a cherry picker in the gym that we truly understood her awesomeness. Stephanie also volunteers as a member of the Parent Council Executive Committee and has been a lifelong Elmwood Franklin community member, graduating from here in 1990. We are honored to present the Unsung Hero award to Stephanie.
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We thank them both, and all our volunteers, for their many contributions—they are appreciated!

Picture a coffeehouse literary reading, sunlight streaming in through the windows as the confident writer shares his or her work with a captive audience. That was the scene Tuesday and Wednesday morning as the fourth graders celebrated some very important authors: themselves. 

After a year in which they wrote everything from personal stories to argumentative essays, students took this opportunity to share original poems, some funny, some touchingly sweet. Each author was given a formal introduction, complete with biographical background, favorite books and writers, and advice to younger writers, which included “Think outside the box,” “Find your passion and dominate it,” and “Always stay determined to make your mark.”

The Author Celebration follows last month’s Poetry Slam, now in its 14th year, which gave second, third, and fourth graders the opportunity to perform a poem—their own or another’s—onstage. Librarian Joan Good, who created the event, called the poetry slam “a forum for our students to experience poetry firsthand and share their creativity and expressiveness with each other.” As a librarian would know best, it’s up to us as readers to take literature out of the book and make it come alive.